Mark Twain citations célèbres
Mark Twain Citations
There are no grades of vanity, there are only grades of ability in concealing it.
en
All schools, all colleges, have 2 great functions: to confer, & to conceal, valuable knowledge.
en
“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.
en
Men are more compassionate/(nobler)/magnanimous/generous than God; for men forgive the dead, but God does not.
en
The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right.
en
What God lacks is convictions -stability of character. He ought to be a Presbyterian or a Catholic or something, -not try to be everything.
en
“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.
en
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
“Familiarity breeds contempt — and children.”
Mark Twain's Notebook (1935)
Mark Twain livre Pudd'nhead Wilson
Following the Equator (1897)
Source: Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar, Ch. XII
Variante: April 1. This is the day upon which we are reminded of what we are on the other three hundred and sixty-four.
Source: Pudd'nhead Wilson and Other Tales
Mark Twain livre Following the Equator
Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar, Ch. XLVIII
Following the Equator (1897)
Variante: To get the full value of joy you must have someone to divide it with.
“It usually takes me two or three days to prepare an impromptu speech.”
Variante: It usually takes more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.
“Adam, at Eve's grave: Wheresoever she was, THERE was Eden.”
Eve's Diary
Source: The Diary of Adam and Eve
Mark Twain livre Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Source: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
“The less there is to justify a traditional custom, the harder it is to get rid of it”
Mark Twain livre Les Aventures de Tom Sawyer
Source: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Mark Twain livre Following the Equator
Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar, Ch. VIII
Following the Equator (1897)
Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar, Ch. LIX
Following the Equator (1897)
“Be respectful to your superiors, if you have any.”
"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">Variante: Be respectful to your superiors, if you have any. <br class="br">Source: The Wit and Wisdom of Mark Twain
Mark Twain livre The Innocents Abroad
Source: The Innocents Abroad (1869), Ch. 61.
Contexte: 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.
Mark Twain livre Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Source: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
“There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist, except an old optimist.”
Variante: There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist, except an old optimist.
“Against the assault of laughter, nothing can stand.”
"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">Contexte: 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.
Source Undetermined in Everyone's Mark Twain (1972) compiled by Caroline Thomas Harnsberger, p. 161
Disputed
