Quote

Circumstances make man, not man circumstances.

Mark Twain

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Determinism
Circumstances
Make
Men

More quotes by Mark Twain

Image
When a man arrives at great prosperity God did it: when he falls into disaster he did it himself.
Mark Twain
Image
Shall we go on conferring our Civilization upon the peoples that sit in darkness, or shall we give those poor things a rest?
Mark Twain
Image
By law of periodical repetition, everything which has happened once must happen again and again -- and not capriciously, but at regular periods, and each thing in its own period, not another's and each obeying its own law.
Mark Twain
Image
None but an ass pays a compliment and asks a favour at the same time. There are many asses.
Mark Twain
Image
Those who do not read the news are uninformed. Those who do are misinformed.
Mark Twain
Image
This is the year 1492. I am eighty-two years of age. The things I am going to tell you are things which I saw myself as a child and as a youth.
Mark Twain
Image
A dozen direct censures are easier to bear than one morganatic compliment.
Mark Twain
Image
When the Lord finished the world, he pronounced it good. That is what I said about my first work, too. But Time, I tell you, Time takes the confidence out of these incautious opinions. It is more than likely that He thinks about the world, now, pretty much as I think about the Innocents Abroad. The fact is, there is a trifle too much water in both.
Mark Twain
Image
The rule is perfect: in all matters of opinion our adversaries are insane.
Mark Twain
Image
It usually takes more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech. Overnight success is a fallacy. It is preceded by a great deal of preparation. Ask any successful person how they came to this point in their lives, and they will have a story to tell.
Mark Twain
Image
Drop this mean and sordid and selfish devotion to the saving of your shabby little souls, and hunt up something to do that's got some dignity to it! Risk your souls! Risk them in good causes then if you lose them, why should you care? Reform!
Mark Twain
Image
We have to keep our God placated with prayer, and even then we are never sure of him-how much higher and finer is the Indian's God...Our illogical God is all-powerful in name, but impotent in fact the Great Spirit is not all-powerful, but does the very best he can for his injun and does it free of charge
Mark Twain
Image
We never knew an ignorant person yet but was prejudiced.
Mark Twain
Image
Memories which someday will become all beautiful when the last annoyance that encumbers them shall have faded out of our minds.
Mark Twain
Image
Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.
Mark Twain
Image
Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.
Mark Twain
Image
A sense of humor is the one thing no one will admit to not having.
Mark Twain
Image
A banquet is probably the most fatiguing thing in the world except ditchdigging. It is the insanest of all recreations. The inventor of it overlooked no detail that could furnish weariness, distress, harassment, and acute and long-sustained misery of mind and body.
Mark Twain
Image
I have seen slower people than I am and more deliberate... and even quieter, and more listless, and lazier people than I am. But they were dead.
Mark Twain
Image
A conspiracy is nothing but a secret agreement of a number of men for the pursuance of policies which they dare not admit in public
Mark Twain