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Mark Twain photo

“I started out alone to seek adventures. You don't really have to seek them—that is nothing but a phrase—they come to you.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

"Taming the Bicycle" (1917)

Mark Twain photo
Mark Twain photo
Mark Twain photo
Mark Twain photo

“It is a mystery that is hidden from me by reason that the emergency requiring the fathoming of it hath not in my life-days occurred, and so, not having no need to know this thing, I abide barren of the knowledge.”

Mark Twain book A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

Ch 25 http://www.literature.org/authors/twain-mark/connecticut/chapter-25.html <br class="br">A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur&#x27;s Court (1889)

Mark Twain photo
Mark Twain photo

“As I slowly grow wise I briskly grow cautious.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

&quot;English as She Is Taught&quot;, The Century, Vol. 33, No. 6, April 1887 http://books.google.com/books?id=EzGgAAAAMAAJ&amp;pg=PA932. A slightly abridged version was reprinted as Introduction http://books.google.com/books?id=CxIuAAAAYAAJ&amp;pg=PR11 to Caroline B. Le Row, English as She Is Taught: Genuine Answers to Some Examination Questions Asked in Our Public Schools (1901)

Mark Twain photo

“Barring that natural expression of villainy which we all have, the man looked honest enough.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

&quot;A Mysterious Visit&quot;, Buffalo Express, 19 March 1870. Anthologized in Mark Twain&#x27;s Sketches, New and Old‎ http://books.google.com/books?id=5LcIAAAAQAAJ (1875)

Mark Twain photo
Mark Twain photo

“Humor must not professedly teach, and it must not professedly preach, but it must do both if it would live forever. By forever, I mean thirty years.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

Mark Twain in eruption: hitherto unpublished pages about men and events, 1940, Mark Twain, Bernard Augustine De Voto, Harper & brothers. This appears to be the origin of the variant:
If you would have your work last forever, and by forever I mean fifty years, it must neither overtly preach nor overtly teach, but it must covertly preach and covertly teach.
Attributed to Twain by J. Michael Straczynski in The complete book of scriptwriting, 2002, Writer's Digest Books

Mark Twain photo

“He is now fast rising from affluence to poverty.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

&quot;Rev. Henry Ward Beecher&#x27;s Farm&quot; (1869), anthologized in Mark Twain&#x27;s Sketches http://books.google.com/books?id=UwcCAAAAQAAJ (1872)

Mark Twain photo
Mark Twain photo
Mark Twain photo
Mark Twain photo

“The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don't want, drink what you don't like, and do what you'd druther not.”

Mark Twain book Following the Equator

Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar, Ch. XLIX
Following the Equator (1897)

Mark Twain photo

“Truth is stranger than fiction — to some people, but I am measurably familiar with it.”

Mark Twain book Following the Equator

Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar, Ch. XV
Following the Equator (1897)

Mark Twain photo

“…when the human race is not grotesque it is because it is asleep and losing its opportunity.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

Source: Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. 2 (2013), p. 127

Mark Twain photo

“Wagner's music is better than it sounds.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

Actually by Bill Nye, possibly confused due to Nye quoting Twain in More Tramps Abroad, 1897. (See also autobiography, vol. 1, p. 288.)
Misattributed

Mark Twain photo

“I have seen Chinamen abused and maltreated in all the mean, cowardly ways possible to the invention of a degraded nature, but I never saw a policeman interfere in the matter and I never saw a Chinaman righted in a court of justice for wrongs thus done him.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

&quot;The Treaty With China&quot;, article in The New York Tribune, 1868-08-04. Quoted in Mark Twain&#x27;s Letters, volume ii, p. 239 https://books.google.com/books?id=EWvU21-vV8EC&amp;pg=PA239&amp;lpg=PA239&amp;dq=%22I+have+seen+Chinamen+abused+and+maltreated+in+all+the+mean,+cowardly+ways+possible+to+the+invention+of+a+degraded+nature.%22&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=-MSeb52ibq&amp;sig=7EJ2Hkgp58wiQNoBmWysiM5YcIQ&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwjMxPKKvbTMAhUM4mMKHbICCt0Q6AEIHTAA#v=onepage&amp;q=%22I%20have%20seen%20Chinamen%20abused%20and%20maltreated%20in%20all%20the%20mean%2C%20cowardly%20ways%20possible%20to%20the%20invention%20of%20a%20degraded%20nature.%22&amp;f=false

Mark Twain photo

“Before taking final leave of me, my instructor inquired concerning my physical strength, and I was able to inform him that I hadn't any.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

"Taming the Bicycle" (1917)