Mark Twain

Explore 91 quotes by Mark Twain

No people in the world ever did achieve freedom by goody-goody talk and moral suasion: it being immutable law that all revolutions that will succeed must begin in blood.

Mark Twain

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

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Topic

Limits of nonviolence Nonviolence Revolution

Author

Mark Twain

Source

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1889 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Twain, Mark. A Yankee in King Arthur's Court. New York: Charles L. Webster and Co., 1889, ch. 20.

Current Citation

Twain, Mark. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, edited by Henry B. Wonham. W. W. Norton & Company, 2018, ch. 20.

The radical of one century is the conservative of the next. The radical invents the views. When he has worn them out the conservative adopts them.

Mark Twain

More information about this quote

Topic

Radicalism Conservatism Progress

Author

Mark Twain

Source

Journals of Mark Twain

Medium

Personal journal

Language

English

Time

1897 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Twain, Mark. Mark Twain's Notebook, edited by Albert Bigelow Paine. The Mark Twain Company, 1932, ch. 31. Originally from Notebook, c. 1897

An uneasy conscience is a hair in the mouth.

Mark Twain

More information about this quote

Topic

Guilty conscience Conscience

Author

Mark Twain

Source

Journals of Mark Twain

Medium

Personal journal

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

1904 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Twain, Mark. Mark Twain's Notebook, edited by Albert Bigelow Paine. The Mark Twain Company, 1932, ch. 35. Originally from Notebook, c. 1904.

Martyrdom covers a multitude of sins.

Mark Twain

More information about this quote

Topic

Martyrdom

Author

Mark Twain

Source

Journals of Mark Twain

Medium

Personal journal

Language

English

Time

1903 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Twain, Mark. Mark Twain's Notebook, edited by Albert Bigelow Paine. The Mark Twain Company, 1932, ch. 33. Originally from Notebook, 23 May 1903.

Each race determines for itself what indecencies are. Nature knows no indecencies; man invents them.

Mark Twain

More information about this quote

Topic

Custom and convention Moral relativism Moral theory Morality

Author

Mark Twain

Source

Journals of Mark Twain

Medium

Personal journal

Language

English

Time

1896 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Twain, Mark. Mark Twain's Notebook, edited by Albert Bigelow Paine. The Mark Twain Company, 1932, ch. 25. Originally from Notebook, c. 1896.

To arrive at a just estimate of a renowned man's character one must judge it by the standards of his time, not ours.

Mark Twain

Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc

More information about this quote

Topic

Historical criticism Custom and convention Moral relativism Morality

Author

Mark Twain

Source

Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1896 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Twain, Mark, [published anonymously]. "Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc." Harper's Magazine. New York, Apr. 1895-Apr. 1896.

Current Citation

Twain, Mark. "Translator's Preface." Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc. Dover Publications, 2002.

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

Mark Twain

More information about this quote

Topic

Confidence How to succeed Success

Author

Mark Twain

Source

Letters of Mark Twain

Medium

Letter

Language

English

Time

1887 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Twain, Mark. Letter to Mrs. Foote. 2 Dec. 1887.

Principles have no real force except when one is well fed.

Mark Twain

More information about this quote

Topic

Moral principles Moral theory Morality

Author

Mark Twain

Source

Extracts from Adam's Diary

Medium

Personal journal

Language

English

Time

1893 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Twain, Mark. "Extracts from Adam's Diary: Translated from the Original Ms." The Niagara Book. Buffalo: Underhill and Nichols, 1893.

Current Citation

Twain, Mark. "Extracts from Adam's Diary." The Best Short Stories of Mark Twain, edited by Lawrence Berkove. Modern Library, 2004.

Such is the human race. Often it does seem such a pity that Noah and his party did not miss the boat.

Mark Twain

Read Christian Science at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Noah's Ark Misanthropy The human condition

Author

Mark Twain

Source

The Church Edifice Christian Science

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1907 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Twain, Mark. "The Church Edifice." Christian Science. Harper & Brothers, 1907.

Whenever you find you are on the side of the majority, it is time to reform.

Mark Twain

More information about this quote

Topic

Questioning one's beliefs Majority opinions Thinking for oneself The masses Consensus

Author

Mark Twain

Source

Journals of Mark Twain

Medium

Personal journal

Statement Type

Advice

Language

English

Time

1904 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Twain, Mark. Mark Twain's Notebook, edited by Albert Bigelow Paine. The Mark Twain Company, 1932, ch. 35. Originally from Notebook, c. 1904.

Eternal Rest sounds comforting in the pulpit, too. Well, you try it once, and see how heavy time will hang on your hands.

Mark Twain

More information about this quote

Topic

Eternal life

Author

Mark Twain

Source

Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven

Medium

Short story

Language

English

Time

1908 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Twain, Mark. "Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven." Harper's Magazine, Dec. 1907 - Jan. 1908.

Current Citation

Twain, Mark. "Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven." The Best Short Stories of Mark Twain, edited by Lawrence Berkove. Modern Library, 2004, ch. 1.

The election makes me think of a story of a man who was dying. He had only two minutes to live, so he sent for a clergyman and asked him, “Where is the best place to go to?” He was undecided about it. So the minister told him that each place had its advantages—heaven for climate, and hell for society.

Mark Twain

More information about this quote

Topic

Heaven and hell Heaven Hell

Author

Mark Twain

Source

Edmund Burke on Croker and Tammany

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1901 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Twain, Mark. "Edmund Burke on Croker and Tammany." 7 Oct. 1901, New York City, NY, USA.

Current Citation

Twain, Mark. "Edmund Burke on Croker and Tammany." Mark Twain: Collected Tales, Sketches, Speeches & Essays 1891-1910, edited by Louis J. Budd. Library of America, 1992.

The kingly office is entitled to no respect. It was originally procured by the highwayman's methods; it remains a perpetuated crime, can never be anything but the symbol of a crime.

Mark Twain

More information about this quote

Topic

Anti-monarchism Monarchy

Author

Mark Twain

Source

Journals of Mark Twain

Medium

Personal journal

Language

English

Time

1888 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Twain, Mark. Mark Twain's Notebook, edited by Albert Bigelow Paine. The Mark Twain Company, 1932, ch. 20. Originally from Notebook, c. 1888.

Anywhere is better than Paris. Paris the cold, Paris the drizzly, Paris the rainy, Paris the Damnable. More than a hundred years ago, somebody asked Quin, "Did you ever see such a winter in all your life before?" "Yes," said he, "last summer." I judge he spent his summer in Paris.

Mark Twain

More information about this quote

Topic

Paris

Author

Mark Twain

Source

Letters of Mark Twain

Medium

Letter

Language

English

Time

1880 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Twain, Mark. Letter to Lucius Fairchild. 28 Apr. 1880.

There is nothing more awe-inspiring than a miracle except the credulity that can take it at par.

Mark Twain

More information about this quote

Topic

Miracles Credulity Doubt and skepticism

Author

Mark Twain

Source

Journals of Mark Twain

Medium

Personal journal

Language

English

Time

1904 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Twain, Mark. Mark Twain's Notebook, edited by Albert Bigelow Paine. The Mark Twain Company, 1932, ch. 35. Originally from Notebook, c. 1904.

There is no God, no universe, no human race, no earthly life, no heaven, no hell. It is all a dream—a grotesque and foolish dream. Nothing exists but you. And you are but a thought—a vagrant thought, a useless thought, a homeless thought, wandering forlorn among the empty eternities!

Mark Twain

The Mysterious Stranger

More information about this quote

Topic

Nature of reality The human condition

Author

Mark Twain

Source

The Mysterious Stranger

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1910 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Twain, Mark. The Mysterious Stranger. Harper & Brothers, 1916, ch. 11

Current Citation

Twain, Mark. "The Mysterious Stranger." Mark Twain: The Gilded Age and Later Novels, edited by Hamlin Hill. Library of America, 2002, ch. 11.

The modern patriotism, the true patriotism, the only rational patriotism, is loyalty to the Nation all the time, loyalty to the Government when it deserves it.

Mark Twain

More information about this quote

Topic

Patriotism

Author

Mark Twain

Source

The Czar's Soliloquy The North American Review

Medium

Magazine

Language

English

Time

1905 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Twain, Mark. "The Czar's Soliloquy." The North American Review, Mar. 1905.

Current Citation

Twain, Mark. "The Czar's Soliloquy." Collected Nonfiction of Mark Twain. Vol. 1. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2016.

God made man, without man's consent, and made his nature, too; made it vicious instead of angelic, and then said, Be angelic, or I will punish you and destroy you. But no matter, God is responsible for everything man does, all the same; He can't get around that fact. There is only one Criminal, and it is not man.

Mark Twain

More information about this quote

Topic

God and man Nature of God God

Author

Mark Twain

Source

Little Bessie Fables of Man

Medium

Short story

Language

English

Time

1910 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Twain, Mark. "Little Bessie." Fables of Man. University of California Press, 1972, ch. 2.

Current Citation

Twain, Mark. "Little Bessie." The Devil's Race-Track: Mark Twain's "Great Dark" Writings. University of California Press, 2005, ch. 2.

When the peremptory challenges were all exhausted, a jury of twelve men was impaneled—a jury who swore they had neither heard, read, talked about nor expressed an opinion concerning a murder which the very cattle in the corrals, the Indians in the sage-brush and the stones in the streets were cognizant of!

Mark Twain

More information about this quote

Topic

Jury system

Author

Mark Twain

Genre

Travel literature

Language

English

Time

1872 1870s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Twain, Mark. Roughing It. Hartford: American Publishing Company, 1872, ch. 48.

Current Citation

Twain, Mark. Roughing It. Signet, 2008, ch. 48.

We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it—and stop there; lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove-lid. She will never sit down on a hot stove-lid again—and that is well; but also she will never sit down on a cold one any more.

Mark Twain

Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World

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More information about this quote

Topic

Learning from experience Learning

Author

Mark Twain

Source

Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World

Genre

Travel writing

Language

English

Time

1897 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Twain, Mark. Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World. Hartford: American Publishing Company, 1897, ch. 11.

Current Citation

Twain, Mark. "Following the Equator." Mark Twain: A Tramp Abroad, Following the Equator, Other Travels, edited by Roy Blount Jr. Library of America, 2010, ch. 11.