Mark Twain: Thing (page 2)

Mark Twain was American author and humorist. Explore interesting quotes on thing.
Mark Twain: 1274   quotes 793   likes

“Herodotus says, "Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all. The conscientious historian will correct these defects."”

Mark Twain book A Horse's Tale

Acknowledgements
Twain does not quote Herodotus here, he only sums up what he believes to have been Herodotus' approach to the writing of history. Nevertheless, this apocryphal statement is now often quoted as being the very words of Herodotus.
A Horse's Tale (1907)

Time

“How little a thing can make us happy when we feel that we have earned it.”

Mark Twain

Source: The Diaries of Adam and Eve

Feeling , Happiness

“To believe yourself brave is to be brave; it is the one only essential thing.”

Mark Twain

Source: Joan of Arc

“Words are only painted fire, a look is the fire itself. She gave that look, and carried it away to the treasury of heaven, where all things that are divine belong.”

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

Source: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

Painting

“Ah, that shows you the power of music, that magician of magician, who lifts his wand and says his mysterious word and all things real pass away and the phantoms of your mind walk before you clothed in flesh.”

Mark Twain book Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc

Source: Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc

Music , Clothes

“The trouble with the world is not that people know too little; it's that they know so many things that just aren't so.”

Mark Twain
People , World

“Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things can not be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.”

Mark Twain book The Innocents Abroad

Vol. II, Conclusion http://books.google.com/books?id=f4EwNleAjJAC&q=%22Travel+is+fatal+to+prejudice+bigotry+and+narrow-mindedness+and+many+of+our+people+need+it+sorely+on+these+accounts+Broad+wholesome+charitable+views+of+men+and+things+cannot+be+acquired+by+vegetating+in+one+little+corner+of+the+earth+all+one's+lifetime%22&pg=PA333#v=onepage
Source: The Innocents Abroad (1869)
Context: Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.

Men

“Humor is the great thing, the saving thing. The minute it crops up, all our hardnesses yield, all our irritations and resentments flit away and a sunny spirit takes their place.”

Mark Twain

"What Paul Bourget Thinks of Us?" (1897)

“I cannot call to mind a single instance where I have ever been irreverent, except toward the things which were sacred to other people.”

Mark Twain
People

“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 obtain.”

Mark Twain book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Source: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), Ch. 2

Law , Boy

“Only one thing is impossible for God: To find any sense in any copyright law on the planet.”

Mark Twain

Source: Letters from the Earth: Uncensored Writings
Source: Mark Twain's Notebook (1935), p. 381

God , Law , Sense

“Now he found out a new thing--namely, that to promise not to do a thing is the surest way in the world to make a body want to go and do that very thing.”

Mark Twain book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Variant: To promise not to do a thing is the surest way in the world to make a body want to go and do that very thing.
Source: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), Ch. 22.

World , Way

“There is no such thing as an ordinary life.”

Mark Twain
Life

“There was things which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth.”

Mark Twain book Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Source: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), Ch. 1.
Source: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Context: You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain't no matter. That book was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly. There was things which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth.

Truth

“Don't you worry your pretty little mind. People throw rocks at things that shine and life makes love look hard”

Mark Twain
Love , Life , People , Making love

“If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first.”

Mark Twain

“She had run down and down and down, and had at last reached a point where medicines no longer had any helpful effect upon her. I said I knew I could put her upon her feet in a week. It brightened her up, it filled her with hope, and she said she would do everything I told her to do. So I said she must stop swearing and drinking, and smoking and eating for four days, and then she would be all right again. And it would have happened just so, I know it; but she said she could not stop swearing, and smoking, and drinking, because she had never done those things. So there it was. She had neglected her habits, and hadn’t any. Now that they would have come good, there were none in stock. She had nothing to fall back on. She was a sinking vessel, with no freight in her to throw overboard and lighten ship withal.”

Mark Twain book Following the Equator

Source: Following the Equator (1897), Ch. I

Hope , Drink , Help