Mark Twain citations célèbres
Mark Twain Citations
There are no grades of vanity, there are only grades of ability in concealing it.
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All schools, all colleges, have 2 great functions: to confer, & to conceal, valuable knowledge.
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“La vérité est la chose la plus précieuse que nous avons. Il nous faut l'économiser.”
Truth is the most valuable thing we have. Let us economize it.
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Men are more compassionate/(nobler)/magnanimous/generous than God; for men forgive the dead, but God does not.
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The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right.
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What God lacks is convictions -stability of character. He ought to be a Presbyterian or a Catholic or something, -not try to be everything.
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“Il n'y a eu qu'un chrétien. Ils l'ont attrapé et crucifié – tôt.”
There has only been one Christian. They caught him & crucified him -early.
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Variante: Dans vingt ans, vous serez plus déçu par les choses que vous n'avez pas faites que par celles que vous avez faites. Alors sortez des sentiers battus. Mettez les voiles. Explorez. Rêvez. Découvrez.
“La charité nous force à tirer le rideau sur le reste de cette scène.”
Mark Twain livre Les Aventures de Tom Sawyer
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Mark Twain: Citations en anglais
Mark Twain livre What Is Man?
Source: What Is Man? (1906), Ch. 6
“I am not one of those who in expressing opinions confine themselves to facts.”
Mark Twain livre What Is Man?
Source: What Is Man?
Mark Twain livre Les Aventures de Tom Sawyer
Source: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Source: Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. 3 (2015), p. 130
Contexte: I have not read Nietzsche or Ibsen, nor any other philosopher, and have not needed to do it, and have not desired to do it; I have gone to the fountain-head for information—that is to say, to the human race. Every man is in his own person the whole human race, with not a detail lacking. I am the whole human race without a detail lacking; I have studied the human race with diligence and strong interest all these years in my own person; in myself I find in big or little proportion every quality and every defect that is findable in the mass of the race. I knew I should not find in any philosophy a single thought which had not passed through my own head, nor a single thought which had not passed the heads of millions and millions of men before I was born; I knew I should not find a single original thought in any philosophy, and I knew I could not furnish one to the world myself, if I had five centuries to invent it in. Nietzsche published his book, and was at once pronounced crazy by the world—by a world which included tens of thousands of bright, sane men who believed exactly as Nietzsche believed, but concealed the fact, and scoffed at Nietzsche. What a coward every man is! and how surely he will find it out if he will just let other people alone and sit down and examine himself. The human race is a race of cowards; and I am not only marching in that procession but carrying a banner.
"What Paul Bourget Thinks of Us?" http://www.mtwain.com/What_Paul_Bourget_Thinks_of_Us/0.html, in How to Tell a Story and Other Essays (1897)
“The very ink with which all history is written is merely fluid prejudice.”
Source: Pudd'nhead Wilson and Other Tales
“Those who don't read good books have no advantage over those who can't.”
Variante: The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.
“The joy of killing! the joy of seeing killing done - these are traits of the human race at large.”
Source: Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World
“As to the adjective: when in doubt, strike it out.”
Mark Twain livre Pudd'nhead Wilson
Source: Pudd'nhead Wilson
Mark Twain livre A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Source: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
“I am not given to exaggeration, and when I say a thing I mean it.”
Mark Twain livre Roughing It
Source: Roughing It
“Golf is a good walk spoiled.”
"Twain probably never uttered [these] words," according to R. Kent Rasmussen, editor of The Quotable Mark Twain (1998). <br class="br">"To play golf is to spoil an otherwise enjoyable walk" is found in H.S. Scrivener, "Memories of Men and Meetings" https://books.google.com/books?id=cYgCAAAAYAAJ&q=dicta#v=snippet&q=dicta&f=false, in Arthur Wallis Myers (ed.) Lawn Tennis at Home and Abroad New York:Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1903, p. 47. Scrivener attributes the aphorism to "my good friends the Allens". Reference from Quote Investigator http://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/05/28/golf-good-walk. <br class="br">Misattributed
Mark Twain livre Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Source: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), Ch. 43.
Source: The Adventures of Huck Finn
Contexte: So there ain't nothing more to write about, and I am rotten glad of it, because if I'd a knowed what a trouble it was to make a book I wouldn't a tackled it and aint't agoing to no more. But I reckon I got to light out for the Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she's going to adopt me and sivilize me and I can't stand it. I been there before.
“There was things which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth.”
Mark Twain livre Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Source: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), Ch. 1.
Source: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Contexte: 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.
