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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
Men
Cause
Libertarian
Veteran
Liberty
Hated
Remembrance
Causes
Brave
Nationalism
Armistice
Politics
Greatness
Patriot
Scorned
Peace
Succeed
Bravery
Timidity
Political
Beginning
Patriotism
Timid
Change
Cost
Costs
Succeeds
Nothing
Courage
Join
Scarce

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There isn't any way to libel the human race.
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I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.
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Truth is more of a stranger than fiction. When in doubt, tell the truth. If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything. Most writers regard the truth as their most valuable possession, and therefore are economical in its use.
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Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand.
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[I] shall never use profanity except in discussing house rent and taxes. Indeed, upon second thought, I will not use it then, for it is unchristian, inelegant, and degrading--though to speak truly I do not see how house rent and taxes are going to be discussed worth a cent without it.
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The critic's symbol should be the tumble-bug: he deposits his egg in somebody else's dung, otherwise he could not hatch it.
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A monarch, when good, is entitled to the consideration which we accord to a pirate who keeps Sunday School between crimes when bad, he is entitled to none at all.
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I admire him, I frankly confess it and when his time is come I shall buy a piece of the rope for a keepsake.
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I know all those people. I have friendly, social, and criminal relations with the whole lot of them.
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A wise man does not waste so good a commodity as lying for naught.
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It takes some little time to accept and realize the fact that while you have been growing old, your friends have not been standing still, in that matter.
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Education that consists in learning things and not the meaning of them is feeding upon the husks and not the corn
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Only he who has seen better days and lives to see better days again knows their full value.
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An ecstasy is a thing that will not go into words it feels like music.
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The pause - that impressive silence, that eloquent silence, that geometrically progressive silence which often achieves a desired effect where no combination of words, howsoever felicitous, could accomplish it.
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A good memory and a tongue tied in the middle is a combination which gives immortality to conversation.
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France has neither winter nor summer nor morals. Apart from these drawbacks it is a fine country.
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Demagogue--a vessel containing beer and other liquids.
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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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