Mark Twain: Idézetek angolul (oldal 13)

“The only difference between reality and fiction is that fiction needs to be credible.”

“H'aint we got all the fools in town on our side? And ain't that a big enough majority in any town?”

“Never be haughty to the humble, never be humble to the haughty.”

“Ah, if he could only die temporarily!”

“High and fine literature is wine, and mine is only water; but everybody likes water.”

“If man could be crossed with a cat, it would improve man but deteriorate the cat.”

“The source of all humor is not laughter, but sorrow.”

“Good breeding consists in concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person.”

“The difference between a Miracle and a Fact is exactly the difference between a mermaid and a seal.”

“You can't reason with your heart; it has its own laws, and thumps about things which the intellect scorns.”

“She was not quite what you would call refined.
She was not quite what you would call unrefined.
She was the kind of person that keeps a parrot.”

“She remained both girl and woman to the last day of her life. Under a grave and gentle exterior burned inextinguishable fires of sympathy, energy, devotion, enthusiasm, and absolutely limitless affection.”

“Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail. What you gain at one end you lose at the other. It's like feeding a dog on his own tail. It won't fatten the dog.”

“A few fly bites cannot stop a spirited horse.”

“Give a man a reputation as an early riser and he can sleep 'til noon.”

“He had had much experience of physicians, and said 'the only way to keep your health is to eat what you don't want, drink what you don't like, and do what you'd druther not'.”

“Loyalty to petrified opinions never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul in this world — and never will.”

“Just when I thought I was learning how to live, 'twas then I realized I was learning how to die.”

“Use the right word, not its second cousin.”