Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes 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

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Inspirational Quotes by Mark Twain (American Humorist)

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

My parents were neither very poor nor conspicuously honest.
—Mark Twain
Topics: Parents, Parenting

It is better to take what does not belong to you than to let it lie around neglected.
—Mark Twain

A soiled baby, with a neglected nose, cannot be conscientiously regarded as a thing of beauty.
—Mark Twain
Topics: Babies

Get your facts first, and then you can distort ’em as you please.
—Mark Twain
Topics: Facts, Journalism

Man will do many things to get himself loved; he will do all things to get himself envied.
—Mark Twain
Topics: Envy

It is my belief that nearly any invented quotation, played with confidence, stands a good chance to deceive.
—Mark Twain

You can’t pray a lie.
—Mark Twain
Topics: Lies, Prayer

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 and the witty story upon the matter.
—Mark Twain
Topics: Humor

Education consists mainly in what we have unlearned.
—Mark Twain
Topics: Education

Don’t part with your illusions. When they are gone you may still exist, but you have ceased to live.
—Mark Twain
Topics: Deception/Lying, Illusion, Deception

His money is twice tainted: ‘taint yours and ‘taint mine.
—Mark Twain
Topics: Money

There is nothing you can say in answer to a compliment. I have been complimented myself a great many times, and they always embarrass me—I always feel that they have not said enough.
—Mark Twain
Topics: Compliments, Praise

Good breeding consists in concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person.
—Mark Twain
Topics: Ancestry, Ancestors

She was not quite what you would call refined. She was not quite what you would call unrefined. She was the kind of person that keeps a parrot.
—Mark Twain
Topics: Birds

Age is a question of mind over matter.
If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter!
Growing old is inevitable. Growing up is optional.
—Mark Twain
Topics: Age

Youth is the best time to be rich, and the best time to be poor.
—Mark Twain
Topics: Health, Aging, Time, Youth

The human race is a race of cowards; and I am not only marching in that procession, but carrying a banner.
—Mark Twain
Topics: Cowardice, Coward

A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining and wants it back the minute it begins to rain.
—Mark Twain

What is human life? The first third a good time; the rest remembering about it.
—Mark Twain
Topics: Time Management

I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.
—Mark Twain
Topics: School, Education

Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside.
—Mark Twain
Topics: Eating

There comes a time in every rightly constructed boy’s life when he has a raging desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure.
—Mark Twain
Topics: Children

The dog is a gentleman; I hope to go to his heaven, not man’s.
—Mark Twain
Topics: Dogs

Power, money, persuasion, supplication, persecution-these can lift a colossal humbug, push it a little, weaken it a little; but only laughter can blow it to rags and atoms at a blast. Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand.
—Mark Twain
Topics: One liners, Laughter

Optimist: Person who travels on nothing from nowhere to happiness.
—Mark Twain
Topics: Optimism

What a good thing Adam had. When he said a good thing, he knew nobody had said it before.
—Mark Twain
Topics: Writing, Plagiarism

He had only one vanity; he thought he could give advice better than any other person.
—Mark Twain
Topics: Vanity

It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.
—Mark Twain
Topics: Government

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

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