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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.

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
Together
Failing
Writing
Fiction
Something
Hell
Test
Good
Trouble
Quickly
Land
Tests
Possible
Fail
Character
Characters
Care
Succeed

More quotes by Mark Twain

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When there was room on the ledge outside of the pots and boxes for a cat, the cat was there- in sunny weather- stretched at full length, asleep and blissful, with her furry belly to the sun and a paw curved over her nose.
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Nothing is so ignorant as a man's left hand, except a lady's watch.
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Damn the subjunctive. It brings all our writers to shame.
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Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.
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I could be an idiot, or I can serve in Congress, but I repeat myself.
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In Marseilles they make half the toilet soap we consume in America, but the Marseillaise only have a vague theoretical idea of its use, which they have obtained from books of travel.
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It's not as bad as it sounds.
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There is no security in life, only opportunity.
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If you would beseech a blessing upon yourself, beware! lest without intent you invoke a curse upon a neighbor at the same time.
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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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Love is madness, if thwarted it develops fast.
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Travel is lethal to prejudice.
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It makes one hope and believe that a day will come when, in the eye of the law, literary property will be as sacred as whiskey, or any other of the necessaries of life. It grieves me to think how far more profound and reverent a respect the law would have for literature if a body could only get drunk on it.
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I do not wish any reward but to know I have done the right thing.
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Each nation knowing it has the only true religion and the only sane system of government, each despising all the others, each an ass and not suspecting it.
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There are too many stars in some places and not enough in others.
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Homely truth is unpalatable.
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It has taken a weary long time to persuade American Presbyterians to give up infant damnation and try to bear it the best they can.
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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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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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