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When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don't mean utterly, but kill most of them--then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they are far apart.

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
Close
Adjective
Strength
Weaken
Rest
Adjectives
Give
Utterly
Together
Catch
Giving
Apart
Mean
Valuable
Writing
Kill
Fluff

More quotes by Mark Twain

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Whiskey is for drinking water is for fighting over.
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Explaining humor is a lot like dissecting a frog, you learn a lot in the process, but in the end you kill it.
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God was left out of the Constitution, but was furnished a front seat in this nations currency. (In God we Trust) is a lie, this nations trust has always been with the dollar.
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Do right and you will be conspicuous.
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The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.
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There's something in it when a body like the widow or the parson prays, but it don't work for me, and I reckon it don't work for only just the right kind.
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I've lived through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.
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The miracle or the power that elevates the few is to be found in their industry, application and perseverance under the promptings of a brave, determined spirit.
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The first time a student realizes that a little learning is a dangerous thing is when he brings home a poor report card.
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We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it - and stop there.
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Change is the handmaiden Nature requires to do her miracles with.
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There are no accidents, all things have a deep and calculated purpose sometimes the methods employed by Providence seem strange and incongruous, but we have only to be patient and wait for the result: then we recognize that no others would have answered the purpose, and we are rebuked and humbled.
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The house was as empty as a beer closet in premises where painters have been at work.
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In the Spring, I have counted 136 different kinds of weather inside of 24 hours.
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Until I came to New Mexico, I never realized how much beauty water adds to a river.
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The test of any good fiction is that you should care something for the characters the good to succeed, the bad to fail. The trouble with most fiction is that you want them all to land in hell, together, as quickly as possible.
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What work I have done I have done because it has been play. If it had been work I shouldn't have done it.
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Never waste a lie you never know when you may need it.
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Genius has no youth, but starts with the ripeness of age and old experience.
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Nature knows no indecencies man invents them.
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