Quote

It is impossible that a genius - at least a literary genius - can ever be discovered by his intimates they are so close to him that he is out of focus to them and they can't get at his proportions they can't perceive that there is any considerable difference between his bulk and their own.

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
Close
Intimates
Genius
Bulk
Difference
Proportions
Differences
Considerable
Focus
Literary
Least
Proportion
Impossible
Discovered
Ever
Perceive

More quotes by Mark Twain

Image
As an example to others, and not that I care for moderation myself, it has always been my rule never to smoke when asleep, and never to refrain from smoking when awake.
Mark Twain
Image
Seasickness: at first you are so sick you are afraid you will die, and then you are so sick you are afraid you won't die.
Mark Twain
Image
They all laid their heads together like as many lawyers when they are gettin' ready to prove that a man's heirs ain't got any right to his property.
Mark Twain
Image
I do not like an injurious lie, except when it injures somebody else.
Mark Twain
Image
Whiskey is carried into committee rooms in demijohns and carried out in demagogues.
Mark Twain
Image
It is your human environment that makes climate
Mark Twain
Image
A discriminating irreverence is the creator and protector of human liberty.
Mark Twain
Image
If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And If it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first.
Mark Twain
Image
The gentle reader will never, never know what a consummate ass he can become until he goes abroad.
Mark Twain
Image
Habit is habit and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time. You cannot eliminate habits that no longer serve you. You can only replace them with new habits that support your goals. Moment by moment, you need to live with awareness and structure the habits that you include or exclude in your days.
Mark Twain
Image
If you have nothing to say, say nothing.
Mark Twain
Image
Loyalty is a word which has worked vast harm for it has been made to trick men into being loyal to a thousand iniquities, whereas the true loyalty should have been to themselves - in which case there would have ensured a rebellion, and the throwing off of that deceptive yoke.
Mark Twain
Image
Nature knows no indecencies man invents them.
Mark Twain
Image
Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.
Mark Twain
Image
The peoples furthest from civilization are the ones where equality between man and woman are furthest apart-and we consider this one of the signs of savagery.
Mark Twain
Image
Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.
Mark Twain
Image
We are always too busy for our children we never give them the time or interest they deserve. We lavish gifts upon them but the most precious gift, our personal association, which means so much to them, we give grudgingly.
Mark Twain
Image
I cannot see how a man of any large degree of humorous perception can ever be religious -- unless he purposely shut the eyes of his mind & keep them shut by force.
Mark Twain
Image
A good lawyer knows the law a clever one takes the judge to lunch.
Mark Twain
Image
Talking of patriotism, what humbug it is it is a word which always commemorates a robbery.
Mark Twain