A thing long expected takes the form of the unexpected when at last it comes. Mark Twain More Quotes by Mark Twain More Quotes From Mark Twain But in this country we have one great privilege which they don't have in other countries. When a thing gets to be absolutely unbearable the people can rise up and throw it off. That's the finest asset we've got - the ballot box. Mark Twain usacountrypeople There is nothing like instances to grow hair on a bald-headed argument. Mark Twain argumentgrowshair Courage is not the lack of fear. It is acting in spite of it. Mark Twain courageinspirationallife A pilot must have a memory developed to absolute perfection. But there are two higher qualities which he also must have. He must have good and quick judgment and decision, and a cool, calm courage that no peril can shake. Mark Twain perfectionmemoriestwo It is human life. We are blown upon the world; we float buoyantly upon the summer air a little while, complacently showing off our grace of form and our dainty iridescent colors; then we vanish with a little puff, leaving nothing behind but a memory - and sometimes not even that. I suppose that at those solemn times when we wake in the deeps of the night and reflect, there is not one of us who is not willing to confess that he is really only a soap-bubble, and as little worth the making. Mark Twain summertimememories In forgiving, people are not being asked to forget. On the contrary, it is important to remember, so that we should not let such atrocities happen again. Forgiveness does not mean condoning what has been done. It means taking what happened seriously...drawing out the sting in the memory that threatens our entire existence. Mark Twain forgivenessmemoriesmean You may say a cat uses good grammar. Well, a cat does -- but you let a cat get excited once; you let a cat get to pulling fur with another cat on a shed, nights, and you'll hear grammar that will give you the lockjaw. Ignorant people think it's the noise which fighting cats make that is so aggravating, but it ain't so; it's the sickening grammar they use. Mark Twain cathumorfunny Of all the unchristian beverages that ever passed my lips, Turkish coffee is the worst. The cup is small, it is smeared with grounds; the coffee is black, thick, unsavory of smell, and execrable in taste. The bottom of the cup has a muddy sediment in it half an inch deep. This goes down your throat, and portions of it lodge by the way, and produce a tickling aggravation that keeps you barking and coughing for an hour. Mark Twain smellaggravationcoffee I haven't any right to criticize books, and I don't do it except when I hate them. I often want to criticize Jane Austen, but her books madden me so that I can't conceal my frenzy from the reader; and therefore I have to stop every time I begin. Every time I read Pride and Prejudice I want to dig her up and beat her over the skull with her own shin-bone. Mark Twain hatewritingbook Life should begin with age and its privileges and accumulations, and end with youth and its capacity to splendidly enjoy such advantages. Mark Twain failureagebirthday To be satisfied with what one has; that is wealth. As long as one sorely needs a certain additional amount, that man isn't rich. Mark Twain menlongneeds Education that consists in learning things and not the meaning of them is feeding upon the husks and not the corn Mark Twain cornfeeding My kind of loyalty was loyalty to one's country, not to its institutions or its office-holders. Mark Twain loyaltyofficecountry I am a great and sublime fool. But then I am God's fool, and all His works must be contemplated with respect. Mark Twain sublimehumorfunny Good judgment comes from experience. And where does experience come from? Experience comes from bad judgment. Mark Twain good-judgmentjudgmentdoe No church property is taxed and so the infidel and the atheist and the man without religion are taxed to make up the deficit. Mark Twain churchatheistmen Principles have no real force except when one is well-fed. Mark Twain carpe-diemrealintegrity There are two times in a man's life when he should not speculate: when he can't afford it, and when he can. Mark Twain moneybusinesslife In the laboratory there are no fustian ranks, no brummagem aristocracies; the domain of Science is a republic, and all its citizens are brothers and equals, its princes of Monaco and its stonemasons of Cromarty meeting, barren of man-made gauds and meretricious decorations, upon the one majestic level! Mark Twain brothermenscience A dozen direct censures are easier to bear than one morganatic compliment. Mark Twain dozenbearscompliment
