„A majdnem helyes szó és a helyes szó közötti különbség valóban nagy dolog - ez a különbség a villámbogár és a villám között.”
Eredeti
The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter—'tis the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning.
Letter to George Bainton, 15 October 1888, solicited for and printed in George Bainton, The Art of Authorship: Literary Reminiscences, Methods of Work, and Advice to Young Beginners (1890), pp. 87–88 http://books.google.com/books?id=XjBjzRN71_IC&pg=PA87.
Twain repeated the lightning bug/lightning comparison in several contexts, and credited Josh Billings for the idea:
Josh Billings defined the difference between humor and wit as that between the lightning bug and the lightning.
Speech at the 145th annual dinner of St. Andrew's Society, New York, 30 November 1901, Mark Twain Speaking (1976), ed. Paul Fatout, p. 424
Billings' original wording was characteristically affected:
Don't mistake vivacity for wit, thare iz about az mutch difference az thare iz between lightning and a lightning bug.
Josh Billings' Old Farmer's Allminax, "January 1871" http://books.google.com/books?id=sUI1AAAAMAAJ&pg=PT30. Also in Everybody's Friend, or; Josh Billing's Encyclopedia and Proverbial Philosophy of Wit and Humor (1874), p. 304 http://books.google.com/books?id=7rA8AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA304
Forrás: The Wit and Wisdom of Mark Twain
Mark Twain 123
amerikai író, újságíró, humorista 1835–1910Hasonló idézetek

Eredeti: We underestimate the distance between ourselves and others. Not just inferential distance, but distances of temperament and ability, distances of situation and resource, distances of unspoken knowledge and unnoticed skills and luck, distances of interior landscape.

„A barátok közötti különbségek csak erősíthetik a barátságokat.”

„Az értelemből három dolog fakad: a helyes gondolkodás, a helyes beszéd, és a helyes cselekvés.”

„Mások tüntetnek, mi tárgyalunk: ez a különbség.”
Délvilág, 2007. november 20.

„A szürrealisták és köztem az a különbség, hogy én szürrealista vagyok.”