Quotes by Mark Twain

About Mark Twain:

Samuel Langhorne Clemens was an American author and humorist. He wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), the latter often called "The Great American Novel".
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure.

Mark Twain

A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining, but wants it back the minute it begins to rain.

Mark Twain

I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.

Mark Twain

Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.

Mark Twain

Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.

Mark Twain

What would men be without women? Scarce, sir...mighty scarce.

Mark Twain

Under certain circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer." [ ]

Mark Twain

It is by the goodness of god that in our country we have those 3 unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them.

Mark Twain

I notice that you use plain, simple language, short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English―it is the modern way and the best way. Stick to it; don't let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in. When you catch an adjective, kil...

Mark Twain

When red-headed people are above a certain social grade their hair is auburn.

Mark Twain

Familiarity breeds contempt and children.

Mark Twain

It usually takes me two or three days to prepare an impromptu speech.

Mark Twain

I've lived through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.

Mark Twain

I take my only exercise acting as a pallbearer at the funerals of my friends who exercise regularly.

Mark Twain

The easy confidence with which I know another man's religion is folly teaches me to suspect that my own is also.

Mark Twain

It's better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than open it and remove all doubt

Mark Twain

Well, there was a sort of bastard justice in his view of the case, and so I dropped the matter. When you can't cure a disaster by argument, what is the use to argue?

Mark Twain

It is strange the way the ignorant and inexperienced so often and so undeservedly succeed when the informed and the experienced fail. All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure.

Mark Twain

Reality can be beaten with enough imagination.

Mark Twain

The Indian may seem poor to we rich Westerners but in matters of the spirit it is we who are the paupers and they who are millionaires.

Mark Twain

I find that, as a rule, when a thing is a wonder to us it is not because of what we see in it, but because of what others have seen in it. We get almost all our wonders at second hand.

Mark Twain

Author Bio

  • NameMark Twain
  • DescriptionAmerican author and humorist
  • AliasesSamuel Langhorne Clemens; Samuel Clemens
  • BornNovember 30, 1835
  • DiedApril 21, 1910
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionJournalist; Humorist; Novelist; Children's Writer; Autobiographer
  • WorksAdventures Of Huckleberry Finn; The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer