Quote

There is a great difference between feeding parties to wild beasts and stirring up their finer feelings in an inquisition. One is the system of degraded barbarians, the other of enlightened civilized people.

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
People
Wild
Barbarians
Civilization
Beasts
Difference
Stirring
Differences
Feeding
System
Parties
Party
Enlightened
Degraded
Feelings
Civilized
Inquisition
Great
Beast
Finer

More quotes by Mark Twain

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the more I know about people, the better I like my dogs.
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There are basically two types of people. People who accomplish things, and people who claim to have accomplished things. The first group is less crowded.
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Creed and opinion change with time, and their symbols perish but Literature and its temples are sacred to all creeds and inviolate.
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The old Irish when immersing a babe at baptism left out the right arm so that it would remain pagan for good fighting
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Don't look at the world with your hands in your pockets. To write about it you have to reach out and touch it.
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The choir always tittered and whispered all through the service. There was once a church choir that was not ill-bred, but I have forgotten where it was.
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I have a higher and grander standard of principle than George Washington. He could not lie I can, but I won't.
Mark Twain
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Every civilization carries the seeds of its own destruction, and the same cycle shows in them all. The Republic is born, flourishes, decays into plutocracy, and is captured by the shoemaker whom the mercenaries and millionaires make into a king. The people invent their oppressors, and the oppressors serve the function for which they are invented.
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You perceive, now, that these things are all impossible except in a dream. You perceive that they are pure and puerile insanities, the silly creations of an imagination that is not conscious of its freaks - in a word, that they are a dream, and you the maker of it. The dream-marks are all present you should have recognized them earlier.
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Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.
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As a rule, we go about with masks, we go about looking honest, and we are able to conceal ourselves all through the day.
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As for the dinosaur - But Noah's conscience was easy it was not named in his cargo list and he and the boys were not aware that there was such a creature. He said he could not blame himself for not knowing about the dinosaur, because it was an American animal and America had not then been discovered.
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All emotion is involuntary when genuine.
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Frankness is a jewel only the young can afford it.
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You perceive I generalize with intrepidity from single instances. It is the tourist's custom.
Mark Twain
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Too bad that youth is wasted on the young.
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History has tried hard to teach us that we can't have good government under politicians. Now, to go and stick one at the very head of the government couldn't be wise.
Mark Twain
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Do you reckon Tom Sawyer was satisfied after all them adventures?
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There warn't anybody at the church, except maybe a hog or two, for there warn't any lock on the door, and hogs likes a puncheon floor in summer-time because it's cool. If you notice, most folks don't go to church only when they've got to but a hog is different.
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The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.
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