Quotes from Mark Twain

The government is merely a servant?merely a temporary servant; it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn't. Its function is to obey orders, not originate them.

A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.

When I am king they shall not have bread and shelter only, but also teachings out of books, for a full belly is little worth where the mind is starved.

It is by the goodness of god that in our country we have those 3 unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them.

Don't wake up a woman in love. Let her dream, so that she does not weep when she returns to her bitter reality

what is joy without sorrow? what is success without failure? what is a win without a loss? what is health without illness? you have to experience each if you are to appreciate the other. there is always going to be suffering. it's how you look at your suffering, how you deal with it, that will define you.

Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.

Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone you may still exist, but you have ceased to live.

Let us so live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.

I never smoke to excess - that is, I smoke in moderation, only one cigar at a time.

In 'Huckleberry Finn,' I have drawn Tom Blankenship exactly as he was. He was ignorant, unwashed, insufficiently fed; but he had as good a heart as ever any boy had.

Geological time is not money.