Skip links

Inspirational Quotations

by RightAttitudes.com

Inspirational Quotes by Mark Twain (American Humorist)

Inspirational Quotations by Mark Twain (American Humorist)

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835–1910) was an American novelist and humorist. He took his nom de plume Mark Twain after the sounding calls of steamboatmen on the Mississippi River, on the banks of which he was brought up. The pseudonym is believed to have been a river navigation phrase meaning “two fathoms deep.”

Born in Florida, Missouri, Twain studied up to fifth grade and quit school when his father died. He supported his family first as a typesetter and later as a riverboat captain until the Civil War broke out in 1861. He then headed west, worked as a miner, and eventually became a journalist.

By 1866, Twain had gained national fame as a humorist and travel writer. He traveled to the Mediterranean and the Holy Land and subsequently published a comic account of his voyages and his American fellow-travelers, The Innocents Abroad (1869.)

Twain is much celebrated for three novels that are often used as academic texts, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876,) Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885,) and Pudd’nhead Wilson (1894,) all of which give a vivid evocation of frontier life in the Mississippi valley. Twain’s writings are characterized by his natural wit, social criticism, and a keen understanding of human nature. He toured widely as a renowned public speaker and continued to write until his death of a heart attack.

Twain’s later books, such as The Mysterious Stranger (1916,) are often satirical and cynical, possibly in reaction to the conservative social milieu of his wife. He spent his last years dictating his autobiography—which had been the subject of many of his writing.

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Mark Twain

Recommended Reading

Inspirational Quotes by Mark Twain (American Humorist)

A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.
—Mark Twain
Topics: Honesty

By his father he is English, by his mother he is Americanto my mind the blend which makes the perfect man.
—Mark Twain

Grief can take care of itself; but to get the full value of a joy you must have somebody to divide it with.
—Mark Twain
Topics: Friendship, Happiness

A joke, even if it be a lame one, is nowhere so keenly relished or quickly applauded as in a murder trial.
—Mark Twain
Topics: Trials, Jokes, Justice

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
Topics: Family

Always do right. It will please some people and astonish the rest.
—Mark Twain

A powerful agent is the right word. Whenever we come upon one of those intensely right words in a book or a newspaper the resulting effect is physical as well as spiritual, and electrically prompt.
—Mark Twain

As to the Adjective: when in doubt, strike it out.
—Mark Twain

Truth is neither alive nor dead; it just aggravates itself all the time.
—Mark Twain
Topics: Truth

Temper is what gets most of us into trouble. Pride is what keeps us there.
—Mark Twain

We all know about the habits of the ant, we know all about the habits of the bee, but we know nothing at all about the habits of the oyster. It seems almost certain that we have been choosing the wrong time for studying the oyster.
—Mark Twain

We do not deal much in facts when we are contemplating ourselves.
—Mark Twain
Topics: Self-Discovery

Even popularity can be overdone. In Rome, along at first, you are full of regrets that Michelangelo dies; but by and by, you only regret that you didn’t see him do it.
—Mark Twain

History, although sometimes made up of the few acts of the great, is more often shaped by the many acts of the small.
—Mark Twain
Topics: History

Often the surest way to convey misinformation is to tell the strict truth.
—Mark Twain
Topics: Truth, Honesty

Principles have no real force except when one is well-fed.
—Mark Twain
Topics: Integrity, Belief

Happiness is a Swedish sunset; it is there for all, but most of us look the other way and lose it.
—Mark Twain
Topics: Happiness

Virtue has never been as respectable as money.
—Mark Twain
Topics: Virtues, Virtue

Lord save us all from… a hope tree that has lost the faculty of putting out blossoms.
—Mark Twain
Topics: Aspirations, Hope

When we remember that we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.
—Mark Twain

Truth is the most valuable thing we have, so I try to conserve it.
—Mark Twain
Topics: Honesty

Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to reform.
—Mark Twain

It is human to exaggerate the merits of the dead.
—Mark Twain

Truth is mighty and will prevail. There is nothing the matter with this, except that it ain’t so.
—Mark Twain
Topics: Honesty

Put all your eggs in one basket and then watch that basket.
—Mark Twain
Topics: Caution, Success, Wealth, Money

Worrying about something is like paying interest on a debt you don’t even know if you owe.
—Mark Twain

So I became a newspaperman. I hated to do it but I couldnt find honest employment.
—Mark Twain

Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.
—Mark Twain
Topics: Smile, Age, Smiling

Each man must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, which course is patriotic and which isn’t. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide against your conviction is to be an unqualified and inexcusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let men label you as they may.
—Mark Twain
Topics: Integrity, Confidence, Decisions, Self-reliance

Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.
—Mark Twain
Topics: Books, Book, Health

We all live in the protection of certain cowardices which we call our principles.
—Mark Twain

Remark of Dr. Baldwin’s, concerning upstarts: We don’t care to eat toadstools that think they are truffles.
—Mark Twain

When you ascend the hill of prosperity, may you not meet a friend.
—Mark Twain
Topics: Success & Failure, Prosperity

The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them.
—Mark Twain

How little a thing can make us happy when we fell that we have earned it.
—Mark Twain

The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don’t want, drink what you don’t like, and do what you’d druther not.
—Mark Twain
Topics: Thinking, Attitude, Perception, Health, Perspective, Good

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
—Mark Twain

Nothing that grieves us can be called little: by the eternal laws of proportion, a child’s loss of a doll and a king’s loss of a crown are events of the same size.
—Mark Twain
Topics: Losing, Losers, Loss

The cat, having sat upon a hot stove lid, will not sit upon a hot stove lid again. But he won’t sit upon a cold stove lid, either.
—Mark Twain
Topics: Experience

Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.
—Mark Twain
Topics: Carpe-diem, Death

Wondering Whom to Read Next?