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

More quotes by Mark Twain

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It's not the parts of the Bible I don't know that worries me...it's the parts that I do.
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If you invent two or three people and turn them loose in your manuscript, something is bound to happen to them -- you can't help it and then it will take you the rest of the book to get them out of the natural consequences of that occurrence, and so first thing you know, there's your book all finished up and never cost you an idea.
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If man could be crossed with the cat, it would improve man but deteriorate the cat.
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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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Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities Truth isn't.
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The funniest things are the forbidden.
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A good lawyer knows the law a clever one takes the judge to lunch.
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To believe yourself brave is to be brave it is the one only essential thing.
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We adore titles and heredities in our hearts and ridicule them with our mouths. This is our democratic privilege.
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Man will do many things to get himself loved, he will do all things to get himself envied.
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The equator was wisely put where it is, because if it had been run through Europe all the kings would have tried to grab it.
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They did not know it was impossible so they did it
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It is better to give than receive- especially advice.
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It must be well-nigh a maximum of sense to behave so that one escapes being hanged.
Mark Twain
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If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and man.
Mark Twain
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Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words.
Mark Twain
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One frequently only finds out how really beautiful a really beautiful woman is after considerable acquaintance with her and the rule applies to Niagara Falls, to majestic mountains, and to mosques-especially to mosques.
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Travel has no longer any charm for me. I have seen all the foreign countries I want to except heaven & hell & I have only a vague curiosity about one of those.
Mark Twain
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... No photograph ever was good, yet, of anybody - hunger and thirst and utter wretchedness overtake the outlaw who invented it! It transforms into desperadoes the weakest of men depicts sinless innocence upon the pictured faces of ruffians gives the wise man the stupid leer of a fool, and the fool an expression of more than earthly wisdom.
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It was enough to make a body ashamed of the human race.
Mark Twain