Quote

Surely the test of a novel's characters is that you feel a strong interest in them and their affairs the good to be successful, the bad to suffer failure. Well, in John Ward, you feel no divided interest, no discriminating interest you want them all to land in hell together, and right away.

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
Feel
Interest
Tests
Ward
Feels
Strong
Characters
Affairs
Good
Away
Failure
Divided
Character
Novel
Surely
Together
Hell
Test
Wells
Land
Affair
Well
Successful
Suffer
Right
Suffering
John
Discriminating

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Doesn't make any difference who we are or what we are, there's always somebody to look down on.
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There are things which some people never attempt during their whole lives, but one of these is not poetry. Poetry attacks all human beings sooner or later, and, like the measles, is mild or violent according to the age of the sufferer.
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If Christ were here now there is one thing he would not be — a Christian.
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One mustn't criticize other people on grounds where he can't stand perpendicular himself
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Agassiz does recommend authors to eat fish, because the phosphorus in it makes brains. But I cannot help you to a decision about the amount you need to eat. Perhaps a couple of whales would be enough.
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Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.
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The Creator made Italy from designs by Michelangelo.
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Truth is more of a stranger than fiction.
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When one has tasted watermelon he knows what the angels eat.
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What a world of trouble those who never marry escape! There are many happy matches, it is true, and sometimes my dear, and my love come from the heart but what sensible bachelor, rejoicing in his freedom and years of discretion, will run the tremendous risk?
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Optimist: day-dreamer in his small clothes.
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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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Drag your thoughts away from your troubles... by the ears, by the heels, or any other way you can manage it.
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Duties are not performed for duty's sake, but because their neglect would make the man uncomfortable. A man performs but one duty - the duty of contenting his spirit, the duty of making himself agreeable to himself.
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More than two hundred death penalties are gone from the law books, but the [biblical] texts that authorised them remain.
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Do something everyday that you don't want to do.
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There is only one expert who is qualified to examine the souls and the life of a people and make a valuable report - the native novelist. ... And when a thousand able novels have been written, there you have the soul of the people and not anywhere else can these be had.
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No one can tell me what is a good cigar - for me. I am the only judge. People who claim to know say that I smoke the worst cigars in the world. They bring their own cigars when they come to my house.
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How lovely is death and how niggardly it is doled out.
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Eight grown Americans out of ten dread the coming of the Fourth, with its pandemonium and its perils, and they rejoice when it is gone-if still alive.
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