On November 30, 1835, Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born in Missouri. Of course, we know him better as Mark Twain, one of America's greatest writers who is well-known for his sharp wit. Twain penned many memorable quotes, 20 of which are here.
1. “I have had a "call" to literature, of a low order—i.e. humorous. It is nothing to be proud of, but it is my strongest suit…seriously scribbling to excite the laughter of God's creatures.”
–Letter to Orion and Mary Clemens
2. “I'll risk forty dollars that he can outjump any frog in Calaveras County.”
–The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County
3. "They spell it Vinci and pronounce it Vinchy; foreigners always spell better than they pronounce."
–The Innocents Abroad
4. “There's millions in it!”
–The Gilded Age
5. “Barring that natural expression of villainy which we all have, the man looked honest enough.”
–A Mysterious Visit
6. “Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do….Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.”
–The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
7. “There is a sumptuous variety about the New England weather that compels the stranger's admiration—and regret. The weather is always doing something there; always attending strictly to business; always getting up new designs and trying them on people to see how they will go….Yes, one of the brightest gems in the New England weather is the dazzling uncertainty of it.”
–The Weather
8. “I am a great & sublime fool. But then I am God's fool, & all His works must be contemplated with respect.”
–Letter to William Dean Howells
9. “Golf is a good walk spoiled.”
10. “My books are water; those of the great geniuses are wine. Everybody drinks water."
–Notebook
11. "I like a thin book because it can steady a table, a leather volume because it will strop a razor, and a heavy book because it can be thrown at a cat."
12. The difference between the almost right word & the right word is really a large matter—it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.
–Letter to George Bainton
13. "The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them."
14. "Classic—a book people praise and don't read."
–Following the Equator
15. “He saw nearly all things as through a glass eye, darkly”
–Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses
16. “When in doubt, tell the truth.”
–Following the Equator
17. “I'll learn him or kill him.”
–Life on the Mississippi
18. “Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.”
19. “Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.”
–Sent to the Young People's Society, Greenpoint Presbyterian Church
20. “Thunder is good, thunder is impressive; but it is lightning that does the work.”
Sources:
Bartlett, John. (2002). Bartlett's Familiar Quotations: A Collection of Passages, Phrases, and Proverbs Traced to Their Sources in Ancient and Modern Literature. Little, Brown and Company.
Jacobs, Ben and Hjalmarsson, Helena. (2002). The Quotable Book Lover. The Lyons Press.
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