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

More quotes by Mark Twain

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All war must be just the killing of strangers against whom you feel no personal animosity strangers whom, in other circumstances, you would help if you found them in trouble, and who would help you if you needed it.
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I am losing enough sleep to supply a worn-out army.
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As a boy, I once saw a cart of melons that sorely tempted me. I sneaked up to the cart and stole a melon. I went into the alley to devour it, but no sooner had I set my teeth into it, than I paused, a strange feeling coming over me. I came to a quick conclusion. Firmly, I walked up to that cart, replaced the melon - and took a ripe one.
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A banquet is probably the most fatiguing thing in the world except ditch digging.
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Adam did not want the apple for the apple's sake he wanted it because it was forbidden.
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There is a sumptuous variety about the New England weather... In the spring I have counted one hundred and twenty-six different kinds of weather inside of four and twenty hours.
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Laughter is the greatest weapon we have and we, as humans, use it the least.
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The critic's symbol should be the tumble-bug: he deposits his egg in somebody else's dung, otherwise he could not hatch it.
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Every one knew he could foretell wars and famines, though that was not so hard, for there was always a war, and generally a famine somewhere.
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For all the talk you hear about knowledge being such a wonderful thing, instinct is worth forty of it for real unerringness.
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Cats are the wildest of the tame and the tamest of the wild
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When the end of the world comes, I want to be in Kentucky, because everything there happens 20 years after it happens anywhere else.
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In the real world, nothing happens at the right place at the right time. It is the job of journalists and historians to correct that.
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Conformity—the natural instinct to passively yield to that vague something recognized as authority.
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Is the human race a joke? Was it devised and patched together in a dull time when there was nothing important to do?
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When people do not respect us we are sharply offended yet in his private heart no man much respects himself.
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We Americans are the most lavish and showiest and most luxury loving people on the earth and at our masthead we fly one true and honest symbol, the gaudiest flag the world has ever seen.
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A habit cannot be tossed out the window it must be coaxed down the stairs a step at a time.
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To stand still is to fall behind.
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There are people who think that honesty is always the best policy. This is a superstition. There are times when the appearance of it is worth six of it.
Mark Twain