Mark Twain

Tumblr by Samuel Langhorne Clemens

[waitingformywings]

You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.

Mark Twain (via waitingformywings)

[hylianmaria]

"The man who is a pessimist before 48 knows too much; if he is an optimist after it, he knows too little."

-Mark Twain.

[darkhalibut]

Censorship is telling a man he can’t have a steak just because a baby can’t chew it.

Mark Twain (via darkhalibut)

[twain]

Habit is habit and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time.

Pudd'nhead Wilson

[twain]

Homely truth is unpalatable.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

[radicalanarchism]

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

[mincaesar]

"If there was an all-powerful god, he would have made all good, and no bad."

Mark Twain

[kushandwizdom]

The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.

Mark Twain

[universalsundial]

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

Mark Twain

[coral]

The worst loneliness is to not be comfortable with yourself.

Mark Twain

[lookandlisteng]

“Man is the Reasoning Animal. Such is the claim. I think it is open to dispute. Indeed, my experiments have proven to me that he is the Unreasoning Animal… In truth, man is incurably foolish. Simple things which other animals easily learn, he is incapable of learning. Among my experiments was this. In an hour I taught a cat and a dog to be friends. I put them in a cage. In another hour I taught them to be friends with a rabbit. In the course of two days I was able to add a fox, a goose, a squirrel and some doves. Finally a monkey. They lived together in peace; even affectionately. Next, in another cage I confined an Irish Catholic from Tipperary, and as soon as he seemed tame I added a Scotch Presbyterian from Aberdeen. Next a Turk from Constantinople; a Greek Christian from Crete; an Armenian; a Methodist from the wilds of Arkansas; a Buddhist from China; a Brahman from Benares. Finally, a Salvation Army Colonel from Wapping. Then I stayed away for two whole days. When I came back to note results, the cage of Higher Animals was all right, but in the other there was but a chaos of gory odds and ends of turbans and fezzes and plaids and bones and flesh—not a specimen left alive. These Reasoning Animals had disagreed on a theological detail and carried the matter to a Higher Court.”

 Mark Twain, Letters from the Earth: Uncensored Writings

[historical-nonfiction]

If you don’t read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed.

Mark Twain (via historical-nonfiction)

[shrimpoid]

They did not know it was impossible, so they did it!

Mark Twain

[readingismyfavorite]

"There  is no power  without  clothes.  It  is  the power that governs the  human  race. Strip its  chiefs  to  the skin, and  no  State  could be governed; naked  officials  could  exercise  no authority;  they would  look (and  be) like everybody  else — commonplace, inconsequential.  A policeman in plain clothes  is  one  man; in  his  uniform  he  is  ten.  Clothes  and  title  are  the  most potent  thing, the most  formidable influence, in  the  earth. They  move  the  human race  to willing and spontaneous  respect for  the judge, the general, the admiral, the bishop, the  ambassador, the  frivolous earl, the idiot duke, the sultan, the king, the emperor. No great title  is efficient  without  clothes  to support it."

“The Czar’s Soliloquy,” Mark Twain

[12deer]

"Books are for people who wish they were somewhere else."

Mark Twain (via teandcats)

[readingismyfavorite]

"There  is no power  without  clothes.  It  is  the power that governs the  human  race. Strip its  chiefs  to  the skin, and  no  State  could be governed; naked  officials  could  exercise  no authority;  they would  look (and  be) like everybody  else — commonplace, inconsequential.  A policeman in plain clothes  is  one  man; in  his  uniform  he  is  ten.  Clothes  and  title  are  the  most potent  thing, the most  formidable influence, in  the  earth. They  move  the  human race  to willing and spontaneous  respect for  the judge, the general, the admiral, the bishop, the  ambassador, the  frivolous earl, the idiot duke, the sultan, the king, the emperor. No great title  is efficient  without  clothes  to support it."

“The Czar’s Soliloquy,” Mark Twain

[mr-another]

There are several good protections against temptations, but the surest is cowardice.

~Mark Twain