Quote

The secret source of humor is not joy but sorrow.

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
Sorrow
Source
Humor
Joy
Secret

More quotes by Mark Twain

Image
Who is this Renaissance? Where did he come from? Who gave him permission to cram the Republic with his execrable daubs?
Mark Twain
Image
Be respectful to your superiors, if you have any.
Mark Twain
Image
Hunger is the handmaid of genius
Mark Twain
Image
Nothing exists but you. And you are but a thought.
Mark Twain
Image
That optimist of yours is always ready to turn hell's backyard into a play-ground.
Mark Twain
Image
There is no use in your walking five miles to fish when you can depend on being just as unsuccessful near home.
Mark Twain
Image
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
Image
I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time.
Mark Twain
Image
The holy passion of Friendship is of so sweet and steady and loyal and enduring a nature that it will last through a whole lifetime, if not asked to lend money.
Mark Twain
Image
I have traveled more than anyone else, and I have noticed that even the angels speak English with an accent.
Mark Twain
Image
When one's character begins to fall under suspicion and disfavor, how swift, then, is the work of disintegration and destruction.
Mark Twain
Image
A jay hasnt got any more principle than a Congressman. A jay will lie, a jay will steal, a jay will deceive, a jay will betray and four times out of five, a jay will go back on his solemnest promise.
Mark Twain
Image
For all the talk you hear about knowledge being such a wonderful thing, instinct is worth forty of it for real unerringness.
Mark Twain
Image
When your opinions start to coincide with those of the majority, it is time to reconsider your opinions.
Mark Twain
Image
Let your joy be unconfined!
Mark Twain
Image
His ignorance covers the world like a blanket, and there's scarcely a hole in it anywhere.
Mark Twain
Image
Let us draw the curtain of charity over the rest of this scene
Mark Twain
Image
Humor must be one of the chief attributes of God. Plants and animals that are distinctly humorous in form and characteristics are God's jokes.
Mark Twain
Image
Experience of life (not of books) is the only capital usable in such a book as you have attempted one can make no judicious use of this capital while it is new.
Mark Twain
Image
The easy confidence with which I know another man's religion is folly teaches me to suspect that my own is also.
Mark Twain