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Morals are not the important thing-nor enlightenment-nor civilization. A man can do absolutely well without them, but he can't do without something to eat. The supremest thing is the need of the body, not of the mind and spirit.

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
Needs
Moral
Thing
Spirit
Mind
Body
Something
Wells
Supremest
Men
Without
Morals
Well
Enlightenment
Need
Absolutely
Important
Civilization

More quotes by Mark Twain

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We wish to learn all the curious, outlandish ways of all the different countries, so that we can show off and astonish people when we get home. We wish to excite the envy of our untraveled friends with our strange foreign fashions which we can't shake off.
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On with the dance, let the joy be unconfined.
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I'm pushing 60 years of age...and that's enough exercise for me.
Mark Twain
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The average American's simplest and commonest form of breakfast consists of coffee and beefsteak.
Mark Twain
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Does the human being reason? No he thinks, muses, reflects, but does not reason...that is, in the two things which are the peculiar domain of the heart, not the mind, politics and religion. He doesn't want to know the other side. He wants arguments and statistics for his own side, and nothing more.
Mark Twain
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Music is a good thing and after all that soul-butter and hogwash, I never see it freshen up things so, and sound so honest and bully.
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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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She is not refined. She is not unrefined. She keeps a parrot
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Old habits cannot be thrown out the upstairs window. They have to be coaxed downstairs one step at a time.
Mark Twain
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A mine is a hole in the ground with a liar on top.
Mark Twain
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That is a simple rule, and easy to remember. When I, a thoughtful and unblessed Presbyterian, examine the Koran, I know that beyond any question every Mohammedan is insane not in all things, but in religious matters.
Mark Twain
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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.
Mark Twain
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The good Lord didn't create anything without a purpose, but the fly comes close.
Mark Twain
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I was educated once - it took me years to get over it.
Mark Twain
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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.
Mark Twain
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How lovely is death and how niggardly it is doled out.
Mark Twain
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If the bubble reputation can be obtained only at the cannon's mouth, I am willing to go there for it, provided the cannon is empty.
Mark Twain
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There is no family in America without a clock, and consequently there is no fair pretext for the usual Sunday medley of dreadful sounds that issues from our steeples.
Mark Twain
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How stunning are the changes which age makes in a man while he sleeps!
Mark Twain
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My father was an amazing man. The older I got, the smarter he got.
Mark Twain