90 Mark Twain Quotes to Enjoy His Wit and Wisdom

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, journalist, entrepreneur, publisher, lecturer and novelist. Twain acquired international fame for his travel narratives, especially The Innocents Abroad (1869), Roughing It (1872), and Life on the Mississippi (1883), and for his adventure stories of boyhood, especially The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885). He created iconic characters Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. He was praised as the “greatest humorist the United States has produced”, and William Faulkner called him “the father of American literature”. Enjoy his wit and wisdom these Mark Twain Quotes.

Mark Twain Quotes

1. “Character is the architect of achievements.” ~ Mark Twain

2. “The trouble is not in dying for a friend, but in finding a friend worth dying for.” ~ Mark Twain

3. “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” ~ Mark Twain

4. “All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, then success is sure.” ~ Mark Twain

5. “Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.” ~ Mark Twain

6. “Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.” ~ Mark Twain
7. “Give every day the chance to become the most beautiful day of your life.” ~ Mark Twain
8. “Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest.” ~ Mark Twain
9. “’Classic’–a book which people praise and don’t read.” ~ Mark Twain
10. “The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.” ~ Mark Twain

Quotes by Mark Twain

11. “Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; truth isn’t.” ~ Mark Twain
12. “The funniest things are forbidden.” ~ Mark Twain
13. “There are no people who are quite so vulgar as the over-refined.” ~ Mark Twain
14. “When you fish for love, bait with your heart, not your brain.” ~ Mark Twain
15. “Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.” ~ Mark Twain
16. “Truth is the most valuable thing we have. Let us economize it.” ~ Mark Twain
17. “The only very marked difference between the average civilized man and the average savage is that the one is gilded and the other is painted.” ~ Mark Twain
18. “The secret of success is making your vocation your vacation.” ~ Mark Twain
19. “Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.” ~ Mark Twain
20. “It is noble to teach oneself, but still nobler to teach others—and less trouble.” ~ Mark Twain

Mark Twain Quote

21. “No real gentleman will tell the naked truth in the presence of ladies.” ~ Mark Twain
22. “Don’t part with your illusions. When they are gone you may still exist, but you have ceased to live.” ~ Mark Twain
23. “Laughter without a tinge of philosophy is but a sneeze of humor. Genuine humor is replete with wisdom.” ~ Mark Twain
24. “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.” ~ Mark Twain
25. “The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.” ~ Mark Twain
26. “What do we call love, hate, charity, revenge, humanity, forgiveness? Different results of the master impulse, the necessity of securing one’s self-approval.” ~ Mark Twain
27. “I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.” ~ Mark Twain
28. “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to reform (or pause and reflect).” ~ Mark Twain
29. “Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.” ~ Mark Twain
30. “Of all the animals, man is the only one that is cruel. He is the only one that inflicts pain for the pleasure of doing it.” ~ Mark Twain

Famous Mark Twain Quotes

31. “To get the full value of joy you must have someone to divide it with.” ~ Mark Twain
32. “Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.” ~ Mark Twain
33. “Don’t wake up a woman in love. Let her dream, so that she does not weep when she returns to her bitter reality.” ~ Mark Twain
34. “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.” ~ Mark Twain
35. “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.” ~ Mark Twain

36. “If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you’re misinformed.” ~ Mark Twain
37. “You can’t reason with your heart; it has its own laws, and thumps about things which the intellect scorns.” ~ Mark Twain
38. “Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.” ~ Mark Twain
39. “The gentle reader will never, never know what a consummate ass he can become until he goes abroad.” ~ Mark Twain
40. “If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and man.” ~ Mark Twain

Twain Quotes

41. “Loyalty to the nation all the time, loyalty to the government when it deserves it.” ~ Mark Twain
42. “Never put off till tomorrow what may be done day after tomorrow just as well.” ~ Mark Twain
43. “A good marriage is the union of the two good forgiveness.” ~ Mark Twain
44. “A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining, but wants is back the minute it begins to rains.” ~ Mark Twain
45. “Why shouldn’t truth be stranger than fiction? Fiction. after all has to make sense.” ~ Mark Twain
46.  ”Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” ~ Mark Twain
47.  ”I do not fear death, I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.” ~ Mark Twain
48. “Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you would rather have talked.” ~ Mark Twain
49. “Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.” ~ Mark Twain
50. “When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.” ~ Mark Twain

Mark Twain Quotes about Life

51. “What would men be without women? Scarce, sir…mighty scarce.” ~ Mark Twain
52. “Education: the path from cocky ignorance to miserable uncertainty.” ~ Mark Twain
53. “A clear conscience is the sure sign of a bad memory.” ~ Mark Twain
54. “When all else fails, write what your heart tells you. You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.” ~ Mark Twain
55. “The worst loneliness is not to be comfortable with yourself.” ~ Mark Twain
56. “Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.” ~ Mark Twain
57. “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” ~ Mark Twain
58. “Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection.”~ Mark Twain
59. “Now and then we had the hope that if we lived and were good. God would permit us to be pirates.” ~ Mark Twain
60. “I did not attend his funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.” ~ Mark Twain

Mark Twain Quotes

61. “Wrinkles should merely indicate where the smiles have been.” ~ Mark Twain
62. “Books are the liberated spirits of men.” ~ Mark Twain
63. “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.” ~ Mark Twain
64. “Do your duty today and repent tomorrow.” ~ Mark Twain
65. “If books are not good company, where will I find it?” ~ Mark Twain
66. “Clothes do not merely make the man…clothes are the man.” ~ Mark Twain
67. “A full belly is little worth where the mind is starved.” ~ Mark Twain
68. “Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.” ~ Mark Twain
69. “Nothing so needs reforming as other people’s habits.” ~ Mark Twain
70. “The man with a new idea is a crank until the idea succeeds.” ~ Mark Twain

Quotes by Mark Twain

71. “The lack of money is the root of all evil.” ~ Mark Twain
72. “Architects cannot teach nature anything.” ~ Mark Twain
73. “Never tell the truth to people who are not worthy of it.” ~ Mark Twain
74. “When in doubt‚ tell the truth.” ~ Mark Twain
75. “There is no sadder thing than a young pessimist‚ except an old optimist.” ~ Mark Twain
76. “All good things arrive unto them that wait and don’t die in the meantime.” ~ Mark Twain
77. “I was born modest‚ but it didn’t last.” ~ Mark Twain
78. “A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.” ~ Mark Twain
79. “Travel is fatal to prejudice.” ~ Mark Twain
80. “An uneasy conscience is a hair in the mouth.” ~ Mark Twain

Mark Twain Quotes

81. “There is nothing in the world like persuasive speech to fuddle the mental apparatus.” ~ Mark Twain
82. “Always obey your parents when they are present.” ~ Mark Twain
83. “Be good and you will be lonesome.” ~ Mark Twain
84. “Always respect your superiors; if you have any.” ~ Mark Twain
85. “May you always keep your youth.” ~ Mark Twain
86. “We ought never to do wrong when people are looking.” ~ Mark Twain
87. “Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to.” ~ Mark Twain
88. “Honor is a harder master than law.” ~ Mark Twain
89. “It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.” ~ Mark Twain
90. “Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very;’ your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.” ~ Mark Twain

Over to You

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