To do something, say something, see something, before anybody else -- these are things that confer a pleasure compared with which other pleasures are tame and commonplace, other ecstasies cheap and trivial. Mark Twain More Quotes by Mark Twain More Quotes From Mark Twain It is a gratification to me to know that I am ignorant of art... Because people who understand art find nothing in pictures but blemishes. Mark Twain ignorantpeopleart Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it. Mark Twain broken-heartinspirationallife Indecency, vulgarity, obscenity - these are strictly confined to man; he invented them. Among the higher animals there is no trace of them. They hide nothing. They are not ashamed. Mark Twain obscenityanimalmen It's easy to endure adversity -- if it happens to someone else. Mark Twain endureadversityeasy The Koran does not permit Mohammedans to drink. Their natural instincts do not permit them to be moral. They say the Sultan has eight hundred wives. This almost amounts to bigamy. Mark Twain eightwifereligion India is, the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition. our most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only. Mark Twain mothermenpast It is a time when one’s spirit is subdued and sad, one knows not why; when the past seems a storm-swept desolation, life a vanity and a burden, and the future but a way to death. It is a time when one is filled with vague longings; when one dreams of flight to peaceful islands in the remote solitudes of the sea, or folds his hands and says, What is the use of struggling, and toiling and worrying any more? let us give it all up. Mark Twain struggledreampast I was dead for millions of years before I was born and it never inconvenienced me a bit. Mark Twain suicidereligiousdeath There are no grades of vanity; there are only grades of ability in concealing it. Mark Twain gradesvanityhumorous Each nation knowing it has the only true religion and the only sane system of government, each despising all the others, each an ass and not suspecting it. Mark Twain assgovernmentknowing I have a higher and grander standard of principle than George Washington. He could not lie; I can, but I won't. Mark Twain truthmotivationallying New Orleans food is as delicious as the less criminal forms of sin. Mark Twain criminalsnew-orleansfood It is a worthy thing to fight for one's freedom; it is another sight finer to fight for another man's. Mark Twain fightingsightmen The rain ...falls upon the just and the unjust alike; a thing which would not happen if I were superintending the rain's affairs. No, I would rain softly and sweetly on the just, but if I caught a sample of the unjust outdoors, I would drown him. Mark Twain unjustrainfall The pause - that impressive silence, that eloquent silence, that geometrically progressive silence which often achieves a desired effect where no combination of words, howsoever felicitous, could accomplish it. Mark Twain progressiveachievesilence Rise early. It is the early bird that catches the worm. Don't be fooled by this absurd law; I once knew a man who tried it. He got up at sunrise and a horse bit him. Mark Twain horselawmen If you invent two or three people and turn them loose in your manuscript, something is bound to happen to them -- you can't help it; and then it will take you the rest of the book to get them out of the natural consequences of that occurrence, and so first thing you know, there's your book all finished up and never cost you an idea. Mark Twain twobookideas We have a criminal jury system which is superior to any in the world and it's efficiency is only marred by the difficulty of finding twelve men every day who don't know anything and can't read- Mark Twain humorousmenfunny Definite speech means clarity of mind. Mark Twain speechmindmean Man is without doubt the most interesting fool there is. He concedes that God made the angels immune from pain and death, and that he could have been similarly kind to man, but denies that he was under any moral obligation to do so. Mark Twain painangelmen
