Mark Twain
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer. Among his novels are The Adventures of Tom Sawyerand its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the latter often called "The Great American Novel"...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth30 November 1835
CountryUnited States of America
desire riches poverty
No, I have no desire for riches. Honest poverty and a conscience, torpid through virtuous inaction, are more to me than corner lots and praise.
believe portraits canvas
I believe I have had the most trouble with a portrait which I painted in installments - the head on one canvas and the bust on another.
hands soul looks
I am living a new and exalted life of late. It steeps me in a sacred rapture to see a portrait develop and take soul under my hand. First, I throw off a study - just a mere study, a few apparently random lines - and to look at it you would hardly ever suspect who it was going to be; even I cannot tell, myself.
bills sound nye
The late Bill Nye once said, 'I have been told that Wagner's music is better than it sounds.
mirrors people glimpse
This autobiography of mine is a mirror, and I am looking at myself in it all the time. Incidentally I notice the people that pass along at my back - I get glimpses of them in the mirror - and whenever they say or do anything that can help advertise me and flatter me and raise me in my own estimation, I set these things down in my autobiography.
fun world body
A good and wholesome thing is a little harmless fun in this world; it tones a body up and keeps him human and prevents him from souring.
failure secret judgment
It is not in the least likely that any life has ever been lived which was not a failure in the secret judgment of the person who lived it.
differences world exhibitions
Was it my conspicuousness that distressed me? Not at all. It was merely that I was not beautifully conspicuous but uglily conspicuous - it makes all the difference in the world.
eight weather ideas
When a person is accustomed to one hundred and thirty-eight in the shade, his ideas about cold weather are not valuable.
moving heart eloquence
And how moving is the eloquence of the untaught when it is the heart that is speaking!
dream luxury soul
The castle-building habit, the day-dreaming habit - how it grows! what a luxury it becomes; how we fly to its enchantments at every idle moment, how we revel in them, steep our souls in them, intoxicate ourselves with their beguiling fantasies - oh, yes, and how soon and how easily our dream-life and our material life become so intermingled and so fused together that we can't quite tell which is which, anymore.
eye men copying
If a spectacle is going to be particularly imposing I prefer to see it through somebody else's eyes, because that man will always exaggerate. Then I can exaggerate his exaggeration, and my account of the thing will be the most impressive.
communication talking risk
I cannot keep from talking, even at the risk of being instructive.
character firsts assuming
One must keep one's character. Earn a character first if you can, and if you can't, then assume one.