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In the beginning of a change the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot.

Mark Twain

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Mark Twain
Age: 74 †
Born: 1835
Born: November 30
Died: 1910
Died: April 21
Aphorist
Author
Autobiographer
Humorist
Journalist
Novelist
Opinion Journalist
Prosaist
Science Fiction Writer
Teacher
Florida
Missouri
Samuel Langhorne Clemens
Samuel L. Clemens
Samuel Clemens
Causes
Brave
Nationalism
Armistice
Politics
Greatness
Patriot
Scorned
Peace
Succeed
Bravery
Timidity
Political
Beginning
Patriotism
Timid
Change
Cost
Costs
Succeeds
Nothing
Courage
Join
Scarce
Men
Cause
Libertarian
Veteran
Liberty
Hated
Remembrance

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Synergy - the bonus that is achieved when things work together harmoniously.
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No throne exists that has a right to exist, and no symbol of it, flying from any flagstaff, is righteously entitled to wear any device but the skull and crossbones of that kindred industry which differs from royalty only businesswise-merely as retail differs from wholesale.
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No one can tell me what is a good cigar - for me. I am the only judge. People who claim to know say that I smoke the worst cigars in the world. They bring their own cigars when they come to my house.
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Difference between savage and civilized man: one is painted, the other gilded.
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A big leather-bound volume makes an ideal razorstrap. A thing book is useful to stick under a table with a broken caster to steady it. A large, flat atlas can be used to cover a window with a broken pane. And a thick, old-fashioned heavy book with a clasp is the finest thing in the world to throw at a noisy cat.
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The law of work seems unfair, but nothing can change it the more enjoyment you get out of your work, the more money you will make.
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Surely the ass who invented the first religion ought to be the first ass damned
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My father was a Saint Bernard, my mother was a Collie, but I am a Presbyterian.
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A little starvation can really do more for the average sick man than can the best medicines and the best doctors.
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Frankness is a jewel only the young can afford it.
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I wrote 'Tom Sawyer' and 'Huck Finn' for adults exclusively, and it always distressed me when I find that boys and girls have been allowed access to them. The mind that becomes soiled in youth can never again be washed clean.
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Our best built certainties are but sand-houses and subject to damage from any wind of doubt that blows
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The older I get, the more clearly I remember things that never happened.
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A dollar picked up in the road is more satisfaction to you than the ninety-and -nine which you had to work for, and money won at faro or in stock snuggles into your heart in the same way.
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Being rich ain't what it's cracked up to be. It's just worry and worry, and sweat and sweat, and a-wishing you was dead all the time.
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Tom said to himself that it was not such a hollow world, after all. He had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it -- namely, that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain.
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When angry, count to four when very angry, swear.
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All my life I have been honest-comparatively honest. I could never use money I had not made honestly-I could only lend it.
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Always acknowledge a fault. This will throw those in authority off their guard and give you an opportunity to commit more.
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Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.
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