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We all live in the protection of certain cowardices which we call our principles.

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
Call
Certain
Live
Nonconformity
Cowardice
Individuality
Protection

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Inherited ideas are a curious thing, and interesting to observe and examine.
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I pity the fellow who has to create a dialect or paraphrase the dictionary to get laughs. I can't spell, but I have never stooped to spell cat with a 'k' to get at your funny bone. I love a drink, but I never encouraged drunkenness by harping on its alleged funny side.
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A half-truth is the most cowardly of lies.
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But in this country we have one great privilege which they don't have in other countries. When a thing gets to be absolutely unbearable the people can rise up and throw it off. That's the finest asset we've got - the ballot box.
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I found out that I was a Christian for revenue only and I could not bear the thought of that, it was so ignoble.
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Circumstance - which moves by laws of its own, regardless of parties and policies, and whose decrees are final and must be obeyed by all - and will be
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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.
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Never refuse to do a kindness unless the act would work great injury to yourself, and never refuse to take a drink - under any circumstances.
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There is nothing so annoying as to have two people talking when you're busy interrupting.
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The dog is a gentleman I hope to go to his heaven not man's.
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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.
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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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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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There are laws to protect the freedom of the press's speech, but none that are worth anything to protect the people from the press
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Sometimes people do get hurt
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The exercise of an extraordinary gift is the supremest pleasure in life.
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Laws are sand, customs are rock. Laws can be evaded and punishment escaped, but an openly transgressed custom brings sure punishment.
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Most writers regard the truth as their most valuable possession, and therefore are most economical in its use.
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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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I have achieved my seventy years in the usual way: by sticking strictly to a scheme of life which would kill anybody else... I will offer here, as a sound maxim, this: That we can't reach old age by another man's road.
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