Quotes by Mark Twain

It takes your enemy and your friend, working together, to hurt you: the one to slander you, and the other to get the news to you.
(Following the Equator - 1897)

Man is the Only Animal that Blushes. Or needs to.
(Following the Equator - 1897)

There are several good protections against temptations, but the surest is cowardice.
(Following the Equator - 1897)

The rule is perfect: in all matters of opinion our adversaries are insane.
(in Christian Science)

All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure.
(Letter to Mrs Foote, Dec. 2, 1887)

Sane and intelligent human beings are like all other human beings, and carefully and cautiously and diligently conceal their private real opinions from the world and give out fictitious ones in their stead for general consumption.
(In Eruption)

We are always more anxious to be distinguished for a talent which we do not possess, than to be praised for the fifteen which we do possess.
(Mark Twain's Autobiography)

When a person cannot deceive himself the chances are against his being able to deceive other people.
(Mark Twain's Autobiography)

The report of my death was an exaggeration.
(New York Journal, June 2, 1897)

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.
(Notebook, 1935)

Familiarity breeds contempt - and children.
(Notebook, 1935)

Good breeding consists of concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person.
(Notebook, 1935)

What a good thing Adam had. When he said a good thing he knew nobody had said it before.
(Notebook, 1935)

An enemy can partly ruin a man, but it takes a good-natured injudicious friend to complete the thing and make it perfect.
(Pudd'nhead Wilson - 1894)

The holy passion of Friendship is of so sweet and steady and loyal and enduring a nature that it will last through a whole lifetime, if not asked to lend money.
(Pudd'nhead Wilson - 1894)

Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.
(Pudd'nhead Wilson - 1894)

Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education.
(Pudd'nhead Wilson - 1894)

Our opinions do not really blossom into fruition until we have expressed them to someone else.
(quoted in and I, Opie Read, 1940)

A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read.
(Speech in New York, Nov. 20, 1900)

It was enough to make a body ashamed of the human race.
(The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn)