Mark Twain Trail Quote of the Day – Sunday – July 18, 2021
“Plain question and plain answer make the shortest road out of most perplexities.” Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi, 1883
"To Wander, To Learn, To Dream, To Build"
“Plain question and plain answer make the shortest road out of most perplexities.” Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi, 1883
“…being a stranger, he was of course regarded as an inferior person–for that has been human nature from Adam down–and of course, also, he was made to feel unwelcome, for this is the ancient law with man and other animals.” Mark Twain, A Scrap of Curious History, 1906
“Supposing is good, but finding out is better.” Mark Twain
Figures often beguile me, particularly when I have the arranging of them myself; in which case the remark attributed to Disraeli would often apply with justice and force: “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.” Mark Twain
“Necessity is the mother of taking chances.” Mark Twain, Roughing It, 1872
“The most useful and interesting letters we get here from home are from children seven or eight years old…They write simply and naturally and without straining for effect. They tell all they know, and stop.” Mark Twain
“The proverb says, “Born lucky, always lucky,” and I am very superstitious. As a small boy I was notoriously lucky. It was usual for one or two of our lads (per annum) to get drowned in the Mississippi or in Bear Creek, but I was pulled out in a 2/3 drowned condition 9 times before I learned to swim, and was considered to be a cat in disguise.” Mark Twain, Letter to Henry H. Rogers, 2 January 1895
“There is nothing that training cannot do. Nothing is above its reach or below it. It can turn bad morals to good, good morals to bad; it can destroy principles, it can recreate them; it can debase angels to men and lift men to angels. And it can do any of these miracles in a year — even six months.” Mark Twain
“To be good is noble, but to teach others how to be good is nobler–and less trouble.” Mark Twain
“It were not best that we should all think alike; it is difference of opinion that makes horse-races.” Mark Twain, Pudd’nhead Wilson’s Calendar, 1894