Quote

I was sorry to have my name mentioned as one of the great authors, because they have a sad habit of dying off. Chaucer is dead, Spencer is dead, so is Milton, so is Shakespeare, and I’m not feeling so well myself.

Mark Twain

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Great
Dying
Spencer
Dead
Milton
Name
Mentioned
Feeling
Authors
Names
Shakespeare
Feelings
Greatness
Wells
Sorry
Well
Habit
Chaucer

More quotes by Mark Twain

Image
We take a natural interest in novelties, but it is against nature to take an interest in familiar things.
Mark Twain
Image
There is no salvation for us but to adopt Civilization and lift ourselves down to its level.
Mark Twain
Image
What work I have done I have done because it has been play. If it had been work I shouldn't have done it. . . . The work that is really a man's own work is play and not work at all. . . . When we talk about the great workers of the world we really mean the great players of the world.
Mark Twain
Image
If you do read the newspaper you are misinformed.
Mark Twain
Image
A woman springs a sudden reproach upon you which provokes a hot retort, and then she will presently ask you to apologize.
Mark Twain
Image
Demagogue--a vessel containing beer and other liquids.
Mark Twain
Image
Strip the human race, absolutely naked, and it would be a real democracy. But the introduction of even a rag of tiger skin, or a cowtail, could make a badge of distinction and be the beginning of a monarchy.
Mark Twain
Image
When an audience does not complain, it is a compliment, and when it does, it is a compliment, too, if unaccompanied by violence.
Mark Twain
Image
You may call a jay a bird. Well, so he is, in a measure--because he's got feathers on him, and don't belong to no church, perhapsbut otherwise he is just as much a human as you be. And I'll tell you for why. A jay's gifts and instincts, and feelings, and interests, cover the whole ground. A jay hasn't got any more principle than a Congressman.
Mark Twain
Image
Astonishing things can be done with the human memory if you will devote it faithfully to one particular line of business.
Mark Twain
Image
Two things seemed pretty apparent to me. One was that in order to be a pilot a man had to learn more than any one man ought to learn and the other was that he must learn it all over again in a different way every 24 hours.
Mark Twain
Image
There are things which some people never attempt during their whole lives, but one of these is not poetry. Poetry attacks all human beings sooner or later, and, like the measles, is mild or violent according to the age of the sufferer.
Mark Twain
Image
My father was a Saint Bernard, my mother was a Collie, but I am a Presbyterian.
Mark Twain
Image
Learn from the mistakes of others - you won't live long enough to make them all yourself. He's opposed to millionaires, but it would be dangerous to offer him the position.
Mark Twain
Image
I am not the editor of a newspaper and shall always try to do right and be good so that God will not make me one.
Mark Twain
Image
Balloon: Thing to take meteroric observations and commit suicide with.
Mark Twain
Image
Low comedies are written for the drawing-room, the kitchen and the stable, and if you cut out the kitchen and the stable the drawing-room can't support the play by itself.
Mark Twain
Image
A circle is a round straight line with a hole in the middle.
Mark Twain
Image
I do not allow my schooling to interfere with my education
Mark Twain
Image
Bridgeport? Said I. Camelot, Said he.
Mark Twain