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
“All right, then, I'll go to hell.”
Mark Twain livre Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Source: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
“Only the scum of the population do it”
Mark Twain livre Roughing It
As quoted in Roughing It http://www.friesian.com/quotes.htm (1872). <br class="br">Roughing It (1872) <br class="br">Contexte: No California gentleman or lady ever abuses or oppresses a Chinaman, under any circumstances, an explanation that seems to be much needed in the east. Only the scum of the population do it; they and their children. They, and, naturally and consistently, the policemen and politicians, likewise, for these are the dust-licking pimps and slaves of the scum, there as well as elsewhere in America.
“Murder is sometimes punished, free speech always”
"The Privilege of the Grave" (1905)
Contexte: As an active privilege, [free speech] ranks with the privilege of committing murder: we may exercise it if we are willing to take the consequences. Murder is forbidden both in form and in fact; free speech is granted in form but forbidden in fact. By the common estimate both are crimes, and are held in deep odium by all civilized peoples. Murder is sometimes punished, free speech always.
“Man is the Only Animal that Blushes. Or needs to.”
Mark Twain livre Following the Equator
Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar, Ch. XXVII
Following the Equator (1897)
“Thunder is good, thunder is impressive; but it is lightning that does the work.”
Letter to an Unidentified Person (1908)
“In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then he made school boards.”
Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar, Ch. LXI
Following the Equator (1897)
Source: Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World
“It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.”
Variante: It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.
“Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.”
Mark Twain livre Pudd'nhead Wilson
Source: Pudd'nhead Wilson
Autobiographical Dictation (1906).
Variante: The only reason why God created man is because he was disappointed with the monkey.
“Be good and you will be lonesome.”
Variante: Be good and you will be lonely.
Source: Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World
“Let us live so that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.”
Mark Twain livre Pudd'nhead Wilson
Variante: Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.
Source: Pudd'nhead Wilson
“Now and then we had a hope that if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates.”
Mark Twain livre Life on the Mississippi
Source: Life on the Mississippi
In revised edition, Vol. I, "Friday, January 19, 1906, About Dueling.", p. 298, The Autobiography of Mark Twain, 1959, Charles Neider, Harper & Row
Mark Twain's Autobiography (1924)
“The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”
Variante: The report of my death was an exaggeration.
Mark Twain livre Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Notice
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885)
Source: The Adventures of Huck Finn
