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
writing achievement squandering
To get the right word in the right place is a rare achievement.
charity scene curtains
Let us draw the curtain of charity over the rest of this scene
school holiday fishing
Schoolboy days are no happier than the days of afterlife, but we look back upon them regretfully because we have forgotten our punishments at school and how we grieved when our marbles were lost and our kites destroyed – because we have forgotten all the sorrows and privations of the canonized ethic and remember only its orchard robberies, its wooden-sword pageants, and its fishing holidays.
determination compliment dies
She kept up her compliments, and I kept up my determination to deserve them or die.
dog stars shining
I felt so lonesome I most wished I was dead. The stars were shining, and the leaves rustled in the woods ever so mournful; and I heard an owl, away off, who-whooing about somebody that was dead, and a whippowill and a dog crying about somebody that was going to die;
luck sprinkles doe
When ill luck begins, it does not come in sprinkles, but in showers.
doors paradise closing
Choosing not to read is like closing an open door to paradise
battle wit persons
Never have a battle of wits with an unarmed person.
insane majority asylums
When majority is insane, sane must go to asylum.
boys men order
Tom said to himself that it was not such a hollow world, after all. He had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it -- namely, that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain.
unwelcome
It is better to be alone than unwelcome. - Eve
heart long shapes
But the elastic heart of youth cannot be compressed into one constrained shape long at a time.
inspirational ordinary ordinary-life
There is no such thing as an ordinary life.
mind littles belly
a fully belly is little worth where the mind is starved.