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There is not a single human characteristic that can be safely labeled as American.

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
Human
Humans
Labeled
Safely
Characteristic
Characteristics
Single
American

More quotes by Mark Twain

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The sole impulse which dictates and compels a man's every act: the imperious necessity of securing his own approval, in every emergency and at all costs.... It is our only spur, our whip, our goad, our impelling power we have no other.
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America cannot have an empire abroad and a Republic at home.
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Each of you, for himself, by himself and on his own responsibility, must speak.
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The art of prophecy is very difficult, especially with respect to the future.
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Give a man a reputation as an early riser and he can sleep 'til noon.
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It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog.
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[On Dutch flat poetry]: It is too smooth and blubbery it reads like butter-milk gurgling from a jug.
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The unexamined life may not be worth living, but the life too closely examined may not be lived at all.
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Jim said that bees won't sting idiots, but I didn't believe that, because I tried them lots of times myself and they wouldn't sting me.
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There ought to be a room in every house to swear in. It's dangerous to have to repress an emotion like that.
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There ain't anything that is so interesting to look at as a place that a book has talked about.
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Be virtuous and you will be eccentric.
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I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time.
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Success is a journey, not a destination. It requires constant effort, vigilance and reevaluation.
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You know that kind of quiver that trembles around through you when you are seeing something so strange and enchanting and wonderful that it is just a fearful joy to be alive and look at it and you know how you gaze, and your lips turn dry and your breath comes short, but you wouldn't be anywhere but there, not for the world.
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Apparently there is nothing that cannot happen today.
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A woman springs a sudden reproach upon you which provokes a hot retort, and then she will presently ask you to apologize.
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We don't care to eat toadstools that think they are truffles.
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when we badly want a thing, we go to hunting for good and righteous reasons for it we give it that fine name to comfort our consciences, whereas we privately know we are only hunting for plausible ones.
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The universal brotherhood of man is our most precious possession.
Mark Twain