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But it was ever thus, all through my life: whenever I have diverged from custom and principle and uttered a truth, the rule has been that the hearer hadn't strength of mind enough to believe it.

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
Life
Rule
Hearer
Strength
Uttered
Principles
Custom
Truth
Customs
Ever
Hadn
Enough
Principle
Mind
Whenever
Believe
Thus
Diverged

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Behind every successful man, there is a woman - And behind every unsuccessful man, there are two.
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A conspiracy is nothing but a secret agreement of a number of men for the pursuance of policies which they dare not admit in public
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Humorists of the 'mere' sort cannot survive. Humor is only a fragrance, a decoration.
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To do something, say something, see something, before anybody else -- these are things that confer a pleasure compared with which other pleasures are tame and commonplace, other ecstasies cheap and trivial.
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I wish I could make him understand that a loving good heart is riches enough, and that without it intellect is poverty.
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Tomorrow night I appear for the first time before a Boston audience - 4000 critics.
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It has been said that a Scotchman has not seen the world until he has seen Edinburgh and I think that I may say that an American has not seen the United States until he has seen Mardi Gras in New Orleans.
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I think that the reason why we Americans seem to be so addicted to trying to get rich suddenly is merely because the opportunity to make promising efforts in that direction has offered itself to us with a frequency out of all proportion to the European experience.
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Names are not always what they seem. The common Welsh name Bzjxxllwcp is pronounced Jackson.
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Travel is lethal to prejudice.
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God created war so that Americans would learn geography.
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Now he found out a new thing--namely, that to promise not to do a thing is the surest way in the world to make a body want to go and do that very thing.
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We take a natural interest in novelties, but it is against nature to take an interest in familiar things.
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The peoples furthest from civilization are the ones where equality between man and woman are furthest apart-and we consider this one of the signs of savagery.
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I have been born more times than anybody except Krishna.
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Let your secret sympathies and your compassion be always with the under dog in the fight -- this is magnanimity but bet on the other one -- this is business.
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We are always more anxious to be distinguished for a talent which we do not possess, than to be praised for the fifteen which we do possess.
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He had only one vanity he thought he could give advice better than any other person.
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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.
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When someone dies, it is like when your house burns down it isn't for years that you realize the full extent of your loss.
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