xy
@xy, member from Sept. 25, 2023
“I couldn't bear to think about it; and yet, somehow, I couldn't think about nothing else.”
Mark Twain book Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Source: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
“The radical invents the views. When he has worn them out the conservative adopts them.”
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
Mark Twain's Notebook (1935)
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
Source Undetermined in Everyone's Mark Twain (1972) compiled by Caroline Thomas Harnsberger, p. 161
Disputed
“Against the assault of laughter, nothing can stand.”
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
"The Chronicle of Young Satan" (ca. 1897–1900, unfinished), published posthumously in Mark Twain's Mysterious Stranger Manuscripts (1969), ed. William Merriam Gibson ( pp. 165–166 http://books.google.com/books?id=LDvA2xcYZKcC&pg=PA165 in the 2005 paperback printing, ). <br class="br">Source: The Mysterious Stranger and Other Curious Tales <br class="br">Context: Your race, in its poverty, has unquestionably one really effective weapon—laughter. Power, Money, Persuasion, Supplication, Persecution—these can lift at a colossal humbug,—push it a little—crowd it a little—weaken it a little, century by century: but only Laughter can blow it to rags and atoms at a blast. Against the assault of Laughter nothing can stand.
“While the rest of the species is descended from apes, redheads are descended from cats.”
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
“There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist, except an old optimist.”
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
Variant: There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist, except an old optimist.
Mark Twain book The Innocents Abroad
Source: The Innocents Abroad (1869), Ch. 61.
Context: The people of those foreign countries are very, very ignorant. They looked curiously at the costumes we had brought from the wilds of America. They observed that we talked loudly at table sometimes. They noticed that we looked out for expenses and got what we conveniently could out of a franc, and wondered where in the mischief we came from. In Paris they just simply opened their eyes and stared when we spoke to them in French! We never did succeed in making those idiots understand their own language.
“for business reasons, I must preserve the outward signs of sanity.”
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
“Be respectful to your superiors, if you have any.”
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
"Advice to Youth", speech to The Saturday Morning Club, Boston, 15 April 1882. Mark Twain Speaking (1976), ed. Paul Fatout, p. 169 http://books.google.com/books?id=mkFgXWvUkVoC&pg=PA169 <br class="br">Variant: Be respectful to your superiors, if you have any. <br class="br">Source: The Wit and Wisdom of Mark Twain
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar, Ch. LIX
Following the Equator (1897)
Mark Twain book Following the Equator
Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar, Ch. VIII
Following the Equator (1897)
“The less there is to justify a traditional custom, the harder it is to get rid of it”
Mark Twain book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Source: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer