Quotations from the Works of Mark Twain
by
David Widger
The Innocents Abroad
Mark Twain's (Burlesque) Auto-biography
First Romance.
Roughing it
The Gilded Age (With Charles Dudley Warner)
Sketches New and Old
My Watch
Political Economy
The Jumping Frog
Journalism in Tennessee
The Story of the Bad Little Boy
The Story of the Good Little Boy
A Couple of Poems by Twain and Moore
Niagara
Answers to Correspondents
To Raise Poultry
Experience of the Mcwilliamses with Membranous Croup
My First Literary Venture
How the Author Was Sold in Newark
The Office Bore
Johnny Greer
The Facts in the Case of the Great Beef Contract
The Case of George Fisher
Disgraceful Persecution of a Boy
The Judges "Spirited Woman"
Information Wanted
Some Learned Fables, for Good Old Boys and Girls
My Late Senatorial Secretaryship
A Fashion Item
Riley-newspaper Correspondent
A Fine Old Man
Science Vs. Luck
The Late Benjamin Franklin
Mr. Bloke's Item
A Medieval Romance
Petition Concerning Copyright
After-dinner Speech
Lionizing Murderers
A New Crime
A Curious Dream
A True Story
The Siamese Twins
Speech at the Scottish Banquet in London
A Ghost Story
The Capitoline Venus
Speech on Accident Insurance
John Chinaman in New York
How I Edited an Agricultural Paper
The Petrified Man
My Bloody Massacre
The Undertaker's Chat
Concerning Chambermaids
Aurelia's Unfortunate Young Man
"After" Jenkins
About Barbers
"Party Cries" in Ireland
The Facts Concerning The Recant Resignation
History Repeats Itself
Honored as a Curiosity
First Interview Kith Artemus Ward
Cannibalism in The Cars
The Killing of Julius Caesar "Localized"
The Widow's Protest
The Scriptural Panoramist
Curing a Cold
A Curious Pleasure Excursion
Running for Governor
A Mysterious Visit
The Curious Republic of Gondour and Other Whimsical Sketches
The Curious Republic of Gondour
A Memory
Introductory to "Memoranda".
About Smells
A Couple of Sad Experiences
Dan Murphy
The "Tournament" in A.d. 1870
Curious Relic for Sale
A Reminiscence of The Back Settlements
A Royal Compliment
The Approaching Epidemic
The Tone-imparting Committee
Our Precious Lunatic
The European War
The Wild Man Interviewed
Last Words of Great Men
The Facts Concerning The Recent Carnival of Crime in Connecticut
Mark Twain's [Date, 1601]
Conversation as it Was by The Social Fireside in The Time of The Tudors
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
The Loves of Alonzo Fitz Clarence and Rosannah EThelton and Other Stories
The Loves of Alonzo Fitz Clarence and Rosannah Ethelton
On The Decay of The Art of Lying
About Magnanimous-incident Literature
The Grateful Poodle
The Benevolent Author
The Grateful Husband
Punch, Brothers, Punch
The Great Revolution in Pitcairn
The Canvasser's Tale
An Encounter with an Interviewer
Paris Notes
Legend of Sagenfeld, in Germany
Speech on The Babies
Speech on The Weather
Concerning The American Language
Rogers
Some Rambling Notes of an Idle Excursion
The Stolen White Elephant
A Tramp Abroad
The Prince and The Pauper
Life on The Mississippi
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
The American Claimant
Extracts from Adam's Diary
In Defence of Harriet Shelley
Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offences
Essays on Paul Bourget
What Paul Bourget Thinks of Us
A Little Note to M. Paul Bourget
Tom Sawyer Abroad
The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson
Those Extraordinary Twins
Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc
Tom Sawyer, Detective
Following The Equator, a Journey Around The World
The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg
The Hadleyberg Other Stories
My First Lie, and How I Got out of it
The Esquimaux Maiden's Romance
Christian Science and The Book of Mrs. Eddy
Is He Living or Is He Dead?
My Debut as a Literary Person
At The Appetite-cure
Concerning The Jews
From The 'London Times' of 1904
About Play-acting
Travelling with a Reformer
Diplomatic Pay and CloThes
Luck
The Captain's Story
Stirring Times in Austria
Meisterschaft
My Boyhood Dreams
To The above Old People
In Memoriam--Olivia Susan Clemens
What Is Man and Other Essays
What Is Man?
The Death of Jean
The Turning-point of My Life
How to Make History Dates Stick
The Memorable Assassination
A Scrap of Curious History
Switzerland, The Cradle of Liberty
At The Shrine of St. Wagner
William Dean Howells
English as She Is Taught
A Simplified Alphabet
As Concerns Interpreting The Deity
Concerning Tobacco
Taming The Bicycle
Is Shakespeare Dead?
The Mysterious Stranger and Other Stories
The Mysterious Stranger
A Fable
Hunting The Deceitful Turkey
The Mcwilliamses and The Burglar Alarm
A Double Barreled Detective
A Dog's Tale
The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories
The $30,000 Bequest
A Dog's Tale
Was it Heaven? Or Hell?
A Cure for The Blues
The Enemy Conquered; Or, Love Triumphant
The Californian's Tale
A Helpless Situation
A Telephonic Conversation
Edward Mills and George Benton: A Tale
The Five Boons of Life
The First Writing-machines
Italian Without a Master
Italian with Grammar
a Burlesque Biography
How to Tell a Story
General Washington's Negro Body-servant
Wit Inspirations of The "Two-year-olds"
An Entertaining Article
a Letter to The Secretary of The Treasury
Amended Obituaries
A Monument to Adam
A Humane Word from Satan
Introduction to "The New Guide of The
Conversation in Portuguese and English"
Advice to Little Girls
Post-mortem Poetry
The Danger of Lying in Bed
Portrait of King William Iii
Does The Race of Man Love a Lord?
Extracts from Adam's Diary
Eve's Diary
A Horse's Tale
Christian Science
Extract from Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven
Is Shakespeare Dead?
On The Decay of The Art of Lying
Goldsmith's Friend Abroad Again
How to Tell a Story and Other Stories
How to Tell a Story
The Wounded Soldier
The Golden Arm
Mental Telegraphy Again
The Invalids Story
Mark Twain's Speeches
Introduction
Preface
The Story of a Speech
Plymouth Rock and The Pilgrims
Compliments and Degrees
Books, Authors, and Hats
Dedication Speech
Die Schrecken Der Deutschen Sprache.
The Horrors of The German Language
German for The Hungarians
A New German Word
Unconscious Plagiarism
The WeaTher
The Babies
Our Children and Great Discoveries
Educating Theatre-goers
The Educational Theatre
Poets as Policemen
Pudd'nhead Wilson Dramatized
Daly Theatre
The Dress of Civilized Woman
Dress Reform and Copyright
College Girls
Girls
The Ladies
Woman's Press Club
Votes for Women
Woman-an Opinion
Advice to Girls
Taxes and Morals
Tammany and Croker
Municipal Corruption
Municipal Government
China and The Philippines
Theoretical and Practical Morals
Layman's Sermon
University Settlement Society
Public Education Association
Education and Citizenship
Courage
The Dinner to Mr. Choate
On Stanley and Livingstone
Henry M. Stanley
Dinner to Mr. Jerome
Henry Irving
Dinner to Hamilton W. Mabie
Introducing Nye and Riley
Dinner to Whitelaw Reid
Rogers and Railroads
The Old-fashioned Printer
Society of American Authors
Reading-room Opening
Literature
Disappearance of Literature
The New York Press Club Dinner
The Alphabet and Simplified Spelling
Spelling and Pictures
Books and Burglars
Authors' Club
Booksellers
"Mark Twain's First Appearance"
Morals and Memory
Queen Victoria
Joan of Arc
Accident Insurance--etc.
Osteopathy
Water-supply
Mistaken Identity
Cats and Candy
Obituary Poetry
Cigars and Tobacco
Billiards
The Union Right or Wrong?
An Ideal French Address
Statistics
Galveston Orphan Bazaar
San Francisco Earthquake
Charity and Actors
Russian Republic
Russian Sufferers
Watterson and Twain as Rebels
Robert Fulton Fund
Fulton Day, Jamestown
Lotos Club Dinner in Honor of Mark Twain
Copyright
In Aid of The Blind
Dr. Mark Twain, Farmeopath
Missouri University Speech
Business
Carnegie The Benefactor
On Poetry, Veracity, and Suicide
Welcome Home
An Undelivered Speech
Sixty-seventh Birthday
To The Whitefriars
The Ascot Gold Cup
The Savage Club Dinner
General Miles and The Dog
When in Doubt, Tell The Truth
The Day We Celebrate
Independence Day
Americans and The English
About London
Princeton
The St. Louis Harbor-boat "Mark Twain"
Seventieth Birthday
Mark Twain's Letters 1853-1910
Arranged with Comment by Albert Bigelow Paine
Mark Twain, a Biography, by Albert Bigelow Paine
SELECTED QUOTATIONS OF MARK TWAIN
By David Widger
will be of interest and use. All the titles may be found using the
Project Gutenberg search engine. After downloading a specific file,
the location and complete context of the quotations may be found by
inserting a small part of the quotation into the 'Find; or 'Search'
funtions of the user's word processing program.
The quotations are in two formats:
1. Small paragraphs from the text.
2. An alphabetized list of one-liners.
The editor would be pleased to be contacted at
for comments, questions and criticism.
D.W.
FOLLOWING THE EQUATOR, by Mark Twain [feqtr10.txt] 2895
Against nature to take an interest in familiar things
Age after age, the barren and meaningless process
All life seems to be sacred except human life
But there are liars everywhere this year
Capacity must be shown (in other work); in the law, concealment of it will do
Christmas brings harassment and dread to many excellent people
Climate which nothing can stand except rocks
Creature which was everything in general and nothing in particular
Custom supersedes all other forms of law
Death in life; death without its privileges
Every one is a moon, and has a dark side
Exercise, for such as like that kind of work
Explain the inexplicable
Faith is believing what you know ain't so
Forbids betting on a sure thing
Forgotten fact is news when it comes again
Get your formalities right--never mind about the moralities
Give thanks that Christmas comes but once a year
Good protections against temptations; but the surest is cowardice
Goody-goody puerilities and dreary moralities
Habit of assimilating incredibilities
Human pride is not worth while
Hunger is the handmaid of genius
If the man doesn't believe as we do, we say he is a crank
Inherited prejudices in favor of hoary ignorances
It is easier to stay out than get out
Man is the only animal that blushes--or needs to
Meddling philanthropists
Melt a brass door-knob and weather which will only make it mushy
Moral sense, and there is an Immoral Sense
Most satisfactory pet--never coming when he is called
Natural desire to have more of a good thing than he needs
Neglected her habits, and hadn't any
Never could tell a lie that anybody would doubt
No nation occupies a foot of land that was not stolen
No people who are quite so vulgar as the over-refined ones
Notion that he is less savage than the other savages
Only way to keep your health is to eat what you don't want
Ostentatious of his modesty
Otherwise they would have thought I was afraid, which I was
Pity is for the living, Envy is for the dead
Prosperity is the best protector of principle
Received with a large silence that suggested doubt
Seventy is old enough--after that, there is too much risk
Silent lie and a spoken one
Sinking vessel, with no freight in her to throw over
Takes your enemy and your friend, working together, to hurt you
Thankfulness is not so general
The man with a new idea is a Crank until the idea succeeds
This is a poor old ship, and ought to be insured and sunk
To a delicate stomach even imaginary smoke can convey damage
Tourists showing how things ought to be managed
Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been
HADLEYBURG AND OTHER STORIES, by Mark Twain[MT#30][mthdb10.txt]3251
Appelles meets Zenobia, the helper of all who suffer, and tells her his
story, which moves her pity. By common report she is endowed with more
than earthly powers; and since he cannot have the boon of death, he
appeals to her to drown his memory in forgetfulness of his griefs--
forgetfulness 'which is death's equivalent'.
I do not remember my first lie, it is too far back; but I remember my
second one very well. I was nine days old at the time, and had noticed
that if a pin was sticking in me and I advertised it in the usual
fashion, I was lovingly petted and coddled and pitied in a most agreeable
way and got a ration between meals besides. It was human nature to want
to get these riches, and I fell. I lied about the pin--advertising one
when there wasn't any. You would have done it; George Washington did it,
anybody would have done it. During the first half of my life I never
knew a child that was able to rise above that temptation and keep from
telling that lie.
This establishment's name is Hochberghaus. It is in Bohemia, a short
day's journey from Vienna, and being in the Austrian Empire is of course
a health resort. The empire is made up of health resorts; it distributes
health to the whole world. Its waters are all medicinal. They are
bottled and sent throughout the earth; the natives themselves drink beer.
But I think I have no such prejudice. A few years ago a Jew observed to
me that there was no uncourteous reference to his people in my books, and
asked how it happened. It happened because the disposition was lacking.
I am quite sure that (bar one) I have no race prejudices, and I think I
have no colour prejudices nor caste prejudices nor creed prejudices.
Indeed, I know it. I can stand any society. All that I care to know is
that a man is a human being--that is enough for me; he can't be any
worse.
HOW TELL A STORY AND OTHERS, by Mark Twain [MT#31][mthts10.txt]3250
There are several kinds of stories, but only one difficult kind--the
humorous. I will talk mainly about that one. The humorous story is
American, the comic story is English, the witty story is French. The
humorous story depends for its effect upon the manner of the telling; the
comic story and the witty story upon the matter.
The humorous story is strictly a work of art--high and delicate art--and
only an artist can tell it; but no art is necessary in telling the comic
and the witty story; anybody can do it. The art of telling a humorous
story--understand, I mean by word of mouth, not print--was created in
America, and has remained at home.
DEFENCE OF HARRIET SHELLEY, by Mark Twain [MT#32][mtdhs10.txt]3171
I have committed sins, of course; but I have not committed enough of them
to entitle me to the punishment of reduction to the bread and water of
ordinary literature during six years when I might have been living on the
fat diet spread for the righteous in Professor Dowden's Life of Shelley,
if I had been justly dealt with.
Yet he has been resting both for a month, with Italian, and tea, and
manna of sentiment, and late hours, and every restful thing a young
husband could need for the refreshment of weary limbs and a sore
conscience, and a nagging sense of shabbiness and treachery.
The biographer throws off that extraordinary remark without any
perceptible disturbance to his serenity; for he follows it with a
sentimental justification of Shelley's conduct which has not a pang of
conscience in it, but is silky and smooth and undulating and pious--a
cake-walk with all the colored brethren at their best. There may be
people who can read that page and keep their temper, but it is doubtful.
FENIMORE COOPER OFFENCES, by Mark Twain [MT#33][mtfco10.txt]3172
It seems to me that it was far from right for the Professor of English
Literature in Yale, the Professor of English Literature in Columbia, and
Wilkie Collins to deliver opinions on Cooper's literature without having
read some of it. It would have been much more decorous to keep silent
and let persons talk who have read Cooper.
Cooper's art has some defects. In one place in 'Deerslayer,' and in the
restricted space of two-thirds of a page, Cooper has scored 114 offences
against literary art out of a possible 115. It breaks the record.
I may be mistaken, but it does seem to me that Deerslayer is not a work
of art in any sense; it does seem to me that it is destitute of every
detail that goes to the making of a work of art; in truth, it seems to me
that Deerslayer is just simply a literary delirium tremens.
ESSAYS ON PAUL BOURGET, by Mark Twain [MT#34][mtpbg10.txt]3173
Bret Harte got his California and his Californians by unconscious
absorption, and put both of them into his tales alive. But when he came
from the Pacific to the Atlantic and tried to do Newport life from study-
conscious observation--his failure was absolutely monumental. Newport is
a disastrous place for the unacclimated observer, evidently.
It is my belief that there are some "national" traits and things
scattered about the world that are mere superstitions, frauds that have
lived so long that they have the solid look of facts. One of them is the
dogma that the French are the only chaste people in the world. Ever
since I arrived in France this last time I have been accumulating doubts
about that.
It would be too immodest. Also too gratuitously generous. And a shade
too self-sufficient. No, he could not venture it. It would look too
much like anxiety to get in at a feast where no plate had been provided
for him.
A foreigner can photograph the exteriors of a nation, but I think that
that is as far as he can get. I think that no foreigner can report its
interior--its soul, its life, its speech, its thought. I think that a
knowledge of these things is acquirable in only one way; not two or four
or six [years]--absorption; years and years of unconscious absorption;
years and years of intercourse with the life concerned; of living it,
indeed; sharing personally in its shames and prides, its joys and griefs,
its loves and hates, its prosperities and reverses, its shows and
shabbinesses, its deep patriotisms, its whirlwinds of political passion,
its adorations--of flag, and heroic dead, and the glory of the national
name. Observation? Of what real value is it? One learns peoples
through the heart, not the eyes or the intellect.
One may say the type of practical joker, for these people are exactly
alike all over the world. Their equipment is always the same: a vulgar
mind, a puerile wit, a cruel disposition as a rule, and always the spirit
of treachery.
A DOG'S TALE, by Mark Twain [MT#35][mtdtl10.txt]3174
My father was a St. Bernard, my mother was a collie, but I am a
Presbyterian. This is what my mother told me, I do not know these nice
distinctions myself.
And it was the same with phrases. She would drag home a whole phrase, if
it had a grand sound, and play it six nights and two matinees, and
explain it a new way every time--which she had to, for all she cared for
was the phrase; she wasn't interested in what it meant, and knew those
dogs hadn't wit enough to catch her, anyway. Yes, she was a daisy! She
got so she wasn't afraid of anything, she had such confidence in the
ignorance of those creatures.
By and by came my little puppy, and then my cup was full, my happiness
was perfect. It was the dearest little waddling thing, and so smooth and
soft and velvety, and had such cunning little awkward paws, and such
affectionate eyes, and such a sweet and innocent face; and it made me so
proud to see how the children and their mother adored it, and fondled it,
and exclaimed over every little wonderful thing it did. It did seem to
me that life was just too lovely to--
I have watched two whole weeks, and he doesn't come up! This last week a
fright has been stealing upon me. I think there is something terrible
about this. I do not know what it is, but the fear makes me sick
A BURLESQUE AUTOBIOGRAPHY, by Mark Twain [MT#36][mtbbg10.txt]3175
Ours is a noble old house, and stretches a long way back into antiquity.
The earliest ancestor the Twains have any record of was a friend of the
family by the name of Higgins. This was in the eleventh century, when
our people were living in Aberdeen, county of Cork, England. Why it is
that our long line has ever since borne the maternal name (except when
one of them now and then took a playful refuge in an alias to avert
foolishness), instead of Higgins, is a mystery which none of us has ever
felt much desire to stir. It is a kind of vague, pretty romance, and we
leave it alone. All the old families do that way.
Then for the next two hundred years the family tree shows a succession of
soldiers--noble, high-spirited fellows, who always went into battle
singing; right behind the army, and always went out a-whooping, right
ahead of it.
Charles Henry Twain lived during the latter part of the seventeenth
century, and was a zealous and distinguished missionary. He converted
sixteen thousand South Sea islanders, and taught them that a dog-tooth
necklace and a pair of spectacles was not enough clothing to come to
divine service in. His poor flock loved him very, very dearly; and when
his funeral was over, they got up in a body (and came out of the
restaurant) with tears in their eyes, and saying, one to another, that he
was a good tender missionary, and they wished they had some more of him.
THE INNOCENTS ABROAD, by Mark Twain [MT#37][mtinn10.txt]3176
Ancient painters never succeeded in denationalizing themselves
Apocryphal New Testament
Astonishing talent for seeing things that had already passed
Bade our party a kind good-bye, and proceeded to count spoons
Base flattery to call them immoral
Bones of St Denis
But it is an ill-wind that blows nobody good
Buy the man out, goodwill and all
By dividing this statement up among eight
Carry soap with them
Chapel of the Invention of the Cross
Christopher Colombo
Clustered thick with stony, mutilated saints
Commend me to Fennimore Cooper to find beauty in the Indians
Conceived a sort of unwarrantable unfriendliness
Confer the rest of their disastrous patronage on some other firm
Creator made Italy from designs by Michael Angelo!
Cringing spirit of those great men
Diffident young man, mild of moustache, affluent of hair
Expression
Felt that it was not right to steal grapes
Fenimore Cooper Indians
Filed away among the archives of Russia--in the stove
For dismal scenery, I think Palestine must be the prince
Free from self-consciousness--which is at breakfast
Fumigation is cheaper than soap
Fun--but of a mild type
Getting rich very deliberately--very deliberately indeed
Guides
Have a prodigious quantity of mind
He never bored but he struck water
He ought to be dammed--or leveed
Holy Family always lived in grottoes
How tame a sight his country's flag is at home
I am going to try to worry along without it
I carried the sash along with me--I did not need the sash
I had a delicacy about going home and getting thrashed
I was not scared, but I was considerably agitated
Is, ah--is he dead?
It is a hopeless, dreary, heart-broken land
It is inferior--for coffee--but it is pretty fair tea
It used to be a good hotel, but that proves nothing
It was warm. It was the warmest place I ever was in
Joshua
Journals so voluminously begun
Keg of these nails--of the true cross
Lean and mean old age
Man peculiarly and insufferably self-conceited: not seasick
Marks the exact centre of the earth
Nauseous adulation of princely patrons
Never did succeed in making those idiots understand their own language
Never left any chance for newspaper controversies
Never uses a one-syllable word when he can think of a longer one
No satisfaction in being a Pope in those days
Not afraid of a million Bedouins
Not bring ourselves to think St John had two sets of ashes
Old Travelers
One is apt to overestimate beauty when it is rare
Only solitary thing one does not smell in Turkey
Oriental splendor!
Original first shoddy contract mentioned in history
Overflowing his banks
People talk so glibly of "feeling," "expression," "tone,"
Perdition catch all the guides
Picture which one ought to see once--not oftener
Polite hotel waiter who isn't an idiot
Relic matter a little overdone?
Room to turn around in, but not to swing a cat
Saviour, who seems to be of little importance any where in Rome
Self-satisfied monarch, the railroad conductor of America
Sentimental praises of the Arab's idolatry of his horse
She assumes a crushing dignity
Shepherd's Hotel, which is the worst on earth
Smell about them which is peculiar but not entertaining
Some people can not stand prosperity
Somewhat singular taste in the matter of relics
St Charles Borromeo, Bishop of Milan
St Helena, the mother of Constantine
Starving to death
Stirring times here for a while if the last trump should blow
Tahoe means grasshoppers. It means grasshopper soup
The information the ancients didn't have was very voluminous
The Last Supper
There was a good deal of sameness about it
They were like nearly all the Frenchwomen I ever saw --homely
They were seasick. And I was glad of it
Those delightful parrots who have "been here before"
To give birth to an idea
Toll the signal for the St Bartholomew's Massacre
Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness
Uncomplaining impoliteness
Under the charitable moon
Used fine tooth combs--successfully
Venitian visiting young ladies
Wandering Jew
Wasn't enough of it to make a pie
We all like to see people seasick when we are not, ourselves
Well provided with cigars and other necessaries of life
What's a fair wind for us is a head wind to them
Whichever one they get is the one they want
Who have actually forgotten their mother tongue in three months
Worth while to get tired out, because one so enjoys resting
ROUGHING IT, by Mark Twain [MT#38][mtrit10.txt]3177
Aim and object of the law and lawyers was to defeat justice
American saddle
Cayote is a living, breathing allegory of Want
Children were clothed in nothing but sunshine
Contempt of Court on the part of a horse
Feared a great deal more than the almighty
Fertile in invention and elastic in conscience
Give one's watch a good long undisturbed spell
He was nearly lightnin' on superintending
He was one of the deadest men that ever lived
Hotel clerk who was crusty and disobliging
I had never seen lightning go like that horse
Juries composed of fools and rascals
List of things which we had seen and some other people had not
Man was not a liar he only missed it by the skin of his teeth
Most impossible reminiscences sound plausible
Native canoe is an irresponsible looking contrivance
Never knew there was a hell!
Nothing that glitters is gold
Profound respect for chastity--in other people
Scenery in California requires distance
Slept, if one might call such a condition by so strong a name
Useful information and entertaining nonsense
Virtuous to the verge of eccentricity
THE GILDED AGE, by Twain and Warner [MT#39][mtgld10.txt]3178
Accidental murder resulting from justifiable insanity
Always trying to build a house by beginning at the top
Appropriation
Beautiful credit! The foundation of modern society
Believed it; because she desired to believe it
Best intentions and the frailest resolution
Big babies with beards
Cheap sentiment and high and mighty dialogue
Conscious superiority
Does your doctor know any thing
Enjoy icebergs--as scenery but not as company
Erie RR: causeway of cracked rails and cows, to the West
Fever of speculation
Final resort of the disappointed of her sex, the lecture platform
Geographical habits
Get away and find a place where he could despise himself
Gossips were soon at work
Grand old benevolent National Asylum for the Helpless
Grief that is too deep to find help in moan or groan or outcry
Haughty humility
Having no factitious weight of dignity to carry
Imagination to help his memory
Invariably advised to settle--no matter how, but settle
Invariably allowed a half for shrinkage in his statements
Is this your first visit?
It had cost something to upholster these women
Large amount of money necessary to make a small hole
Later years brought their disenchanting wisdom
Let me take your grief and help you carry it
Life a vanity and a burden, and the future but a way to death
Mail train which has never run over a cow
Meant no harm they only wanted to know
Money is most difficult to get when people need it most
Never sewed when she could avoid it. Bless her!
Nursed his woe and exalted it
Predominance of the imagination over the judgment
Question was asked and answered--in their eyes
Riches enough to be able to gratify reasonable desires
Road, which did not seem to know its own mind exactly
Sarcasms of fate
Sleep that heals all heart-aches and ends all sorrows
Small gossip stood a very poor chance
Sun bothers along over the Atlantic
Think a Congress of ours could convict the devil of anything
Titles never die in America
Too much grace and too little wine
Understood the virtues of "addition, division and silence"
Unlimited reliance upon human promises
Very pleasant man if you were not in his way
Wasn't worth a cent two years ago, and now I owe two millions
"We must create, a public opinion," said Senator Dilworthy
We'll make you think you never was at home before
We've all got to come to it at last, anyway!
Widened, and deepened, and straightened--(Public river Project)
Wished that she could see his sufferings now
Your absence when you are present
THE AMERICAN CLAIMANT, by Mark Twain [MT#40][mtacl10.txt]3179
He's a kind of an aristocrat, his father being a doctor, and you know
what style that is--in England, I mean, because in this country a doctor
ain't so very much, even if he's that.
Hasn't any culture but the artificial culture of books, which adorns but
doesn't really educate.
A discriminating irreverence is the creator and protector of human
liberty.
The exercise of an extraordinary gift is the supremest pleasure in life.
Oh, just to work--that is life! No matter what the work is--that's of no
consequence. Just work itself is bliss when a man's been starving for
it.
What right has Goethe, what right has Arnold, what right has any
dictionary, to define the word Irreverence for me? What their ideals are
is nothing to me. So long as I reverence my own ideals my whole duty is
done, and I commit no profanation if I laugh at theirs. I may scoff at
other people's ideals as much as I want to. It is my right and my
privilege. No man has any right to deny it.
No throne was ever set up by the unhampered vote of a majority of any
nation; and that hence no throne exists that has a right to exist, and no
symbol of it, flying from any flagstaff, is righteously entitled to wear
any device but the skull and crossbones of that kindred industry which
differs from royalty only business-wise--merely as retail differs from
wholesale.
DOUBLE BARRELLED DETECTIVE, by Mark Twain [MT#41][mtdbd10.txt]3180
"We ought never to do wrong when people are looking."
"The regularest man that ever was," said Jake Parker, the blacksmith:
"you can tell when it's twelve just by him leaving, without looking at
your Waterbury."
The sheriff that lets a mob take a prisoner away from him is the lowest-
down coward there is. By the statistics there was a hundred and eighty-
two of them drawing sneak pay in America last year. By the way it's
going, pretty soon there 'll be a new disease in the doctor-books--
sheriff complaint." That idea pleased him--any one could see it.
"People will say, 'Sheriff sick again?' 'Yes; got the same old thing.'
And next there 'll be a new title. People won't say, 'He's running for
sheriff of Rapaho County,' for instance; they'll say, 'He's running for
Coward of Rapaho.' Lord, the idea of a grown-up person being afraid of a
lynch mob!"
THE STOLEN WHITE ELEPHANT, by Mark Twain [MT#42][mtswe10.txt]3181
Left out of A Tramp Abroad, because it was feared that some of the
particulars had been exaggerated, and that others were not true. Before
these suspicions had been proven groundless, the book had gone to press.
--M. T.]
"Well, as to what he eats--he will eat anything. He will eat a man, he
will eat a Bible--he will eat anything between a man and a Bible."--"Good
very good, indeed, but too general. Details are necessary--details are
the only valuable things in our trade. Very well--as to men. At one
meal--or, if you prefer, during one day--how man men will he eat, if
fresh?"--"He would not care whether they were fresh or not; at a single
meal he would eat five ordinary men.
Elephant arrived here from the south and passed through toward the forest
at 11.50, dispersing a funeral on the way, and diminishing the mourners
by two.
RAMBLING IDLE EXCURSION, by Mark Twain [MT#43][mtrid10.txt]3182
Straight roads reveal everything at a glance and kill interest.
All the journeyings I had ever done had been purely in the way of
business. The pleasant May weather suggested a novelty namely, a trip
for pure recreation, the bread-and-butter element left out. The Reverend
said he would go, too; a good man, one of the best of men, although a
clergyman.
We went ashore and found a novelty of a pleasant nature: there were no
hackmen, hacks, or omnibuses on the pier or about it anywhere, and nobody
offered his services to us, or molested us in any way. I said it was
like being in heaven. The Reverend rebukingly and rather pointedly
advised me to make the most of it, then.
There's cats around here with names that would surprise you. "Maria" (to
his wife), "what was that cat's name that eat a keg of ratsbane by
mistake over at Hooper's, and started home and got struck by lightning
and took the blind staggers and fell in the well and was 'most drowned
before they could fish him out?"--"That was that colored Deacon Jackson's
cat. I only remember the last end of its name, which was Hold-The-Fort-
For-I-Am-Coming Jackson."
CARNIVAL OF CRIME IN CT., by Mark Twain [MT#44][mtccc10.txt]3183
Yes, but you did; you lied to him."--I felt a guilty pang--in truth, I
had felt it forty times before that tramp had traveled a block from my
door--but still I resolved to make a show of feeling slandered; so I
said: "This is a baseless impertinence. I said to the tramp--"--
"There--wait. You were about to lie again. I know what you said to him.
You said the cook was gone down-town and there was nothing left from
breakfast. Two lies. You knew the cook was behind the door, and plenty
of provisions behind her."
I never did a thing in all my life, virtuous or otherwise, that I didn't
repent of in twenty-four hours.
In conclusion, I wish to state, by way of advertisement, that medical
colleges desiring assorted tramps for scientific purposes, either by the
gross, by cord measurement, or per ton, will do well to examine the lot
in my cellar before purchasing elsewhere, as these were all selected and
prepared by myself, and can be had at a low rate; because I wish to
clear, out my stock and get ready for the spring trade.
ALONZO FITZ AND OTHERS, by Mark Twain [MT#45][mtlaf10.txt]3184
It was well along in the forenoon of a bitter winter's day. The town of
Eastport, in the state of Maine, lay buried under a deep snow that was
newly fallen. The customary bustle in the streets was wanting. One
could look long distances down them and see nothing but a dead-white
emptiness, with silence to match. Of course I do not mean that you could
see the silence--no, you could only hear it.
"That clock's wrong again. That clock hardly ever knows what time it is;
and when it does know, it lies about it--which amounts to the same thing.
Alfred!"
THOSE EXTRAORDINARY TWINS, by Mark Twain [MT#46][mtext10.txt]3185
A man who is born with the novel-writing gift has a troublesome time of
it when he tries to build a novel. I know this from experience. He has
no clear idea of his story; in fact he has no story. He merely has some
people in his mind, and an incident or two, also a locality. He knows
these people, he knows the selected locality, and he trusts that he can
plunge those people into those incidents with interesting results. So he
goes to work. To write a novel? No--that is a thought which comes
later; in the beginning he is only proposing to tell a little tale; a
very little tale; a six-page tale. But as it is a tale which he is not
acquainted with, and can only find out what it is by listening as it goes
along telling itself, it is more than apt to go on and on and on till it
spreads itself into a book. I know about this, because it has happened
to me so many times.
I didn't know what to do with her. I was as sorry for her as anybody
could be, but the campaign was over, the book was finished, she was
sidetracked, and there was no possible way of crowding her in, anywhere.
I could not leave her there, of course; it would not do. After spreading
her out so, and making such a to-do over her affairs, it would be
absolutely necessary to account to the reader for her. I thought and
thought and studied and studied; but I arrived at nothing. I finally saw
plainly that there was really no way but one--I must simply give her the
grand bounce. It grieved me to do it, for after associating with her so
much I had come to kind of like her after a fashion, notwithstanding she
was such an ass and said such stupid irritating things and was so
nauseatingly sentimental. Still it had to be done. So, at the top of
Chapter XVII, I put in a "Calendar" remark concerning July Fourth, and
began the chapter with this statistic: "Rowena went out in the back yard
after supper to see the fireworks and fell down the well and got
drowned." It seemed abrupt, but I thought maybe the reader wouldn't
notice it, because I changed the subject right away to something else.
THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER, by Mark Twain [MT#47][mtmst10.txt]3186
It was in 1590--winter. Austria was far away from the world, and asleep;
it was still the Middle Ages in Austria, and promised to remain so
forever. Some even set it away back centuries upon centuries and said
that by the mental and spiritual clock it was still the Age of Belief in
Austria. But they meant it as a compliment, not a slur, and it was so
taken, and we were all proud of it. I remember it well, although I was
only a boy; and I remember, too, the pleasure it gave me.
When we were finishing our house, we found we had a little cash left
over, on account of the plumber not knowing it.
I will explain that whenever I want a thing, and Mrs. McWilliams wants
another thing, and we decide upon the thing that Mrs. McWilliams wants--
as we always do--she calls that a compromise.
What an ass you are!" he said. "Are you so unobservant as not to have
found out that sanity and happiness are an impossible combination? No
sane man can be happy, for to him life is real, and he sees what a
fearful thing it is. Only the mad can be happy, and not many of those.
The few that imagine themselves kings or gods are happy, the rest are no
happier than the sane. Of course, no man is entirely in his right mind
at any time, but I have been referring to the extreme cases.
"Now there is the history of that burglar alarm--everything just as it
happened; nothing extenuated, and naught set down in malice. Yes, sir,--
and when I had slept nine years with burglars, and maintained an
expensive burglar alarm the whole time, for their protection, not mine,
and at my sole cost--for not a d---d cent could I ever get THEM to
contribute--I just said to Mrs. McWilliams that I had had enough of that
kind of pie; so with her full consent I took the whole thing out and
traded it off for a dog, and shot the dog.
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE, by Mark Twain [MT#48][mtcsc10.txt]3187
This last summer, when I was on my way back to Vienna from the Appetite-
Cure in the mountains, I fell over a cliff in the twilight, and broke
some arms and legs and one thing or another, and by good luck was found
by some peasants who had lost an ass, and they carried me to the nearest
habitation, which was one of those large, low, thatch-roofed farm-houses,
with apartments in the garret for the family, and a cunning little porch
under the deep gable decorated with boxes of bright colored flowers and
cats; on the ground floor a large and light sitting-room, separated from
the milch-cattle apartment by a partition; and in the front yard rose
stately and fine the wealth and pride of the house, the manure-pile.
That sentence is Germanic, and shows that I am acquiring that sort of
mastery of the art and spirit of the language which enables a man to
travel all day in one sentence without changing cars.
"I do not understand it. I believe she has not diagnosed the case with
sufficient care. Did she look like a person who was theorizing, or did
she look like one who has fallen off precipices herself and brings to the
aid of abstract science the confirmations of personal experience?"--
"Bitte?" --It was too large a contract for the Stubenmadchen's
vocabulary; she couldn't call the hand. I allowed the subject to rest
there, and asked for something to eat and smoke, and something hot to
drink, and a basket to pile my legs in; but I could not have any of these
things.
Does she seem to be in full and functionable possession of her
intellectual plant, such as it is?"--"Bitte?"--"Do they let her run at
large, or do they tie her up?"
MARK TWAIN'S SPEECHES, by Mark Twain [MT#49][mtmts10.txt]3188
A little pride always goes along with a teaspoonful of brains
Ain't any real difference between triplets and an insurrection
Chastity, you can carry it too far
Classic: everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read
Don't know anything and can't do anything
Dwell on the particulars with senile rapture
Future great historian is lying--and doubtless will continue to
Head is full of history, and some of it is true, too
Humor enlivens and enlightens his morality
I shall never be as dead again as I was then
If can't make seventy by any but an uncomfortable road: don't go
Kill a lot of poets for writing about "Beautiful Spring"
Live upon the property of their heirs so long
Morality is all the better for his humor
Morals: rather teach them than practice them any day
Never been in jail, and the other is, I don't know why
Never to smoke when asleep, and never to refrain when awake
Patriotism is usually the refuge of the scoundrel
Please state what figure you hold him at--and return the basket
Principles is another name for prejudices
She bears our children--ours as a general thing
Some civilized women would lose half their charm without dress
The Essex band done the best it could
Time-expired man, to use Kipling's military phrase
To exaggerate is the only way I can approximate to the truth
Two kinds of Christian morals, one private and the other public
What, sir, would the people of the earth be without woman?
When in doubt, tell the truth
Women always want to know what is going on
SKETCHES NEW AND OLD, by Mark Twain [MT#50][mtsno10.txt]3189
A wood-fire is not a permanent thing
Accessory before the fact to his own murder
Aggregate to positive unhappiness
Always brought in 'not guilty'
Apocryphal was no slouch of a word, emanating from the source
Assertion is not proof
Early to bed and early to rise
I am useless and a nuisance, a cumberer of the earth
I never was so scared before and survived it
If I had sprung a leak now I had been lost
Just about cats enough for three apiece all around
Looked a look of vicious happiness
Lucid and unintoxicated intervals
No matter how absurd and unreasonable their demands
No public can withstand magnanimity
Not because I was afraid, but because I wanted to (go out the window)
Permanent reliable enemy
Science only needed a spoonful of supposition to build a mountain
State of mind bordering on impatience
Walking five miles to fish
Was a good deal annoyed when it appeared he was going to die
1601, by Mark Twain [MT#51][mtsxn10.txt]3190
But suppose a literary artist ventured to go into a painstaking and
elaborate description of one of these grisly things--the critics would
skin him alive. Well, let it go, it cannot be helped; Art retains her
privileges, Literature has lost hers. Somebody else may cipher out the
whys and the wherefores and the consistencies of it--I haven't got time."
Albert Bigelow Paine, Mark Twain's biographer, likewise acknowledged its
greatness, when he said, "1601 is a genuine classic, as classics of that
sort go. It is better than the gross obscenities of Rabelais, and
perhaps in some day to come, the taste that justified Gargantua and the
Decameron will give this literary refugee shelter and setting among the
more conventional writing of Mark Twain. Human taste is a curious thing;
delicacy is purely a matter of environment and point of view."
Suppose Sir Walter [Scott] instead of putting the conversation into the
mouths of his characters, had allowed the characters to speak for
themselves? We should have had talk from Rebecca and Ivanhoe and the
soft lady Rowena which would embarrass a tramp in our day. However, to
the unconsciously indelicate all things are delicate."
GOLDSMITH'S FRIEND ABROAD AGAIN, by Twain [MT#52][mtgfa10.txt]3191
No experience is set down in the following letters which had to be
invented. Fancy is not needed to give variety to the history of a
Chinaman's sojourn in America. Plain fact is amply sufficient.
DEAR CHING-FOO: It is all settled, and I am to leave my oppressed and
overburdened native land and cross the sea to that noble realm where all
are free and all equal, and none reviled or abused--America!
But he said, wait a minute--I must be vaccinated to prevent my taking the
small-pox. I smiled and said I had already had the small-pox, as he
could see by the marks, and so I need not wait to be "vaccinated," as he
called it. But he said it was the law, and I must be vaccinated anyhow.
The doctor would never let me pass, for the law obliged him to vaccinate
all Chinamen and charge them ten dollars apiece for it, and I might be
sure that no doctor who would be the servant of that law would let a fee
slip through his fingers to accommodate any absurd fool who had seen fit
to have the disease in some other country.
And I grew still more uneasy, when I found that any succored and
befriended refugee from Ireland or elsewhere could stand up before that
judge and swear, away the life or liberty or character of a refugee from
China; but that by the law of the land the Chinaman could not testify
against the Irishman.
CURIOUS REPUBLIC OF GONDOUR, by Mark Twain [MT#53][mtcrg10.txt]3192
I found that the nation had at first tried universal suffrage pure and
simple, but had thrown that form aside because the result was not
satisfactory. It had seemed to deliver all power into the hands of the
ignorant and non-tax-paying classes; and of a necessity the responsible
offices were filled from these classes also.
That last--and saddest evidence of intellectual poverty, the Pun.
Mrs. Murphy jumped to the conclusion that it would only cost two or
three dollars to embalm her dead husband, and so she telegraphed "Yes."
It was at the "wake" that the bill for embalming arrived and was
presented to the widow. She uttered a wild, sad wail, that pierced every
heart, and said: "Sivinty-foive dollars for stoofhn' Dan, blister their
sowls! Did thim divils suppose I was goin' to stairt a Museim, that I'd
be dalin' in such expinsive curiassities!"
I kind of dodged, and the boot-jack broke the looking-glass. I could
have waited to see what became of the other missiles if I had wanted to,
but I took no interest in such things.
TWAIN'S LETTERS V1 1835-1866 by A. B. Paine[MT#54][mt1lt10.txt]3193
A mighty national menace to sham
All talk and no cider
Condition my room is always in when you are not around
Deprived of the soothing consolation of swearing
Frankness is a jewel; only the young can afford it
Genius defies the laws of perspective
Hope deferred maketh the heart sick
I never greatly envied anybody but the dead
In the long analysis of the ages it is the truth that counts
Just about enough cats to go round
Moral bulwark reared against hypocrisy and superstition
The coveted estate of silence, time's only absolute gift
We went outside to keep from getting wet
What a pleasure there is in revenge!
When in doubt, tell the truth
When it is my turn, I don't
TWAIN'S LETTERS V2 1867-1875 by A. B. Paine[MT#55][mt2lt10.txt]3194
DEAR REDPATH,--I wish you would get me released from the lecture at
Buffalo. I mortally hate that society there, and I don't doubt they
hired me. I once gave them a packed house free of charge, and they never
even had the common politeness to thank me. They left me to shift for
myself, too, a la Bret Harte at Harvard. Get me rid of Buffalo!
Otherwise I'll have no recourse left but to get sick the day I lecture
there. I can get sick easy enough.
I send you No. 5 today. I have written and re-written the first half of
it three different times, yesterday and today, and at last Mrs. Clemens
says it will do. I never saw a woman so hard to please about things she
doesn't know anything about. Yours ever, MARK.
This is the place to get a poor opinion of everybody in. There isn't one
man in Washington, in civil office, who has the brains of Anson
Burlingame--and I suppose if China had not seized and saved his great
talents to the world, this government would have discarded him when his
time was up. There are more pitiful intellects in this Congress! Oh,
geeminy! There are few of them that I find pleasant enough company to
visit. I am most infernally tired of Wash. and its "attractions." To
be busy is a man's only happiness--and I am--otherwise I should die
Yrs. aff. SAM.
TWAIN'S LETTERS V3 1876-1885 by A. B. Paine[MT#56][mt3lt10.txt]3195
It is interesting to note that in thanking Clemens for his compliment
Howells wrote: "What people cannot see is that I analyze as little as
possible; they go on talking about the analytical school, which I am
supposed to belong to, and I want to thank you for using your eyes.....
Did you ever read De Foe's 'Roxana'? If not, then read it, not merely
for some of the deepest insights into the lying, suffering, sinning,
well-meaning human soul, but for the best and most natural English that a
book was ever written in."
Pray offer my most sincere and respectful approval to the President--is
approval the proper word? I find it is the one I most value here in the
household and seldomest get.
In the same letter he suggests to his brother that he undertake an
absolutely truthful autobiography, a confession in which nothing is to be
withheld. He cites the value of Casanova's memories, and the confessions
of Rousseau.
And I say this also: He that waiteth for all men to be satisfied with his
plan, let him seek eternal life, for he shall need it.
Well-good-bye, and a short life and a merry one be yours. Poor old
Methusaleh, how did he manage to stand it so long?
You are assisted in your damaging work by the tyrannous ways of a
village-- villagers watch each other and so make cowards of each other.
TWAIN'S LETTERS V4 1886-1900 by A. B. Paine[MT#57][mt4lt10.txt]3196
And I have been an author for 20 years and an ass for 55
Argument against suicide
Conversationally being yelled at
Dead people who go through the motions of life
Die in the promptest kind of a way and no fooling around
Heroic endurance that resembles contentment
Honest men must be pretty scarce
I wonder how they can lie so. It comes of practice, no doubt
If this is going to be too much trouble to you
One should be gentle with the ignorant
Sunday is the only day that brings unbearable leisure
Symbol of the human race ought to be an ax
What a pity it is that one's adventures never happen!
TWAIN'S LETTERS V5 1901-1906 by A. B. Paine[MT#58][mt5lt10.txt]3197
I have seen that iceberg thirty-four times in thirty-seven voyages; it is
always the same shape, it is always the same size, it always throws up
the same old flash when the sun strikes it; you may set it on any New
York door-step of a June morning and light it up with a mirror-flash; and
I will engage to recognize it. It is artificial, and it is provided and
anchored out by the steamer companies. I used to like the sea, but I was
young then, and could easily get excited over any kind of monotony, and
keep it up till the monotonies ran out, if it was a fortnight.
It vexes me to catch myself praising the clean private citizen Roosevelt,
and blaming the soiled President Roosevelt, when I know that neither
praise nor blame is due to him for any thought or word or deed of his, he
being merely a helpless and irresponsible coffee-mill ground by the hand
of God.
It was a presidential year and the air was thick with politics. Mark
Twain was no longer actively interested in the political situation; he
was only disheartened by the hollowness and pretense of office-seeking,
and the methods of office-seekers in general.
Shall we ever laugh again? If I could only see a dog that I knew in the
old times! and could put my arms around his neck and tell him all,
everything, and ease my heart. Think--in 3 hours it will be a week!--and
soon a month; and by and by a year. How fast our dead fly from us.
Aldrich was here half an hour ago, like a breeze from over the fields,
with the fragrance still upon his spirit. I am tired of waiting for that
man to get old.
When a man is a pessimist before 48 he knows too much; if he is an
optimist after it, he knows too little.
TWAIN'S LETTERS V6 1907-1910 by A. B. Paine[MT#59][mt6lt10.txt]3198
That doctor had half an idea that there is something the matter with my
brain. . . Doctors do know so little and they do charge so much for
it.
You ought not to say sarcastic things about my "fighting on the other
side." General Grant did not act like that. General Grant paid me
compliments. He bracketed me with Zenophon--it is there in his Memoirs
for anybody to read. He said if all the confederate soldiers had
followed my example and adopted my military arts he could never have
caught enough of them in a bunch to inconvenience the Rebellion. General
Grant was a fair man, and recognized my worth; but you are prejudiced,
and you have hurt my feelings.
DEAR HOWELLS,--I have to write a line, lazy as I am, to say how your Poe
article delighted me; and to say that I am in agreement with
substantially all you say about his literature. To me his prose is
unreadable--like Jane Austin's. No, there is a difference. I could read
his prose on salary, but not Jane's. Jane is entirely impossible. It
seems a great pity that they allowed her to die a natural death.
COMPLETE LETTERS OF MARK TWAIN, by Paine [MT#60][mtclt10.txt]3199
That doctor had half an idea that there is something the matter with my
brain. . . Doctors do know so little and they do charge so much for
it.
Shall we ever laugh again? If I could only see a dog that I knew in the
old times! and could put my arms around his neck and tell him all,
everything, and ease my heart. Think--in 3 hours it will be a week!--and
soon a month; and by and by a year. How fast our dead fly from us.
I used to like the sea, but I was young then, and could easily get
excited over any kind of monotony, and keep it up till the monotonies ran
out.
And I say this also: He that waiteth for all men to be satisfied with his
plan, let him seek eternal life, for he shall need it.
Well-good-bye, and a short life and a merry one be yours. Poor old
Methusaleh, how did he manage to stand it so long?
You are assisted in your damaging work by the tyrannous ways of a
village-- villagers watch each other and so make cowards of each other.
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