Tag Archive: The Mark Twain Trail

“Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn’t.”  Mark Twain

“He had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it — namely, that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to obtain.”  Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, 1876

“Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.”  Mark Twain

“Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living.  The world owes you nothing.  It was here first.”  Mark Twain

“Booker T. Washington, a man worth a hundred Roosevelts, a man whose shoe-latchets Mr. Roosevelt is not worthy to untie.”  Mark Twain

“It is curious — curious that physical courage should be so common in the world, and moral courage so rare.”  Mark Twain

“You see my kind of loyalty was loyalty to one’s country, not to its institutions, or its office holders.  The country is the real thing, the substantial thing, the eternal thing; it is the thing to watch over, and care for, and be loyal to; institutions are extraneous, they are its mere clothing, and clothing can wear out, become ragged, cease to be comfortable, cease to protect the body from winter, disease, and death.  To be loyal to rags, to shout for rags, to worship rags, to die for rags  —  this is loyalty to unreason, it is pure animal; it belongs to monarchy, was invented by monarchy, let monarchy keep it.”  Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, 1889

“Laughter without a tinge of philosophy is but a sneeze of humor. Genuine humor is replete with wisdom.”  Mark Twain

“It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.”  Mark Twain

“If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.”  Mark Twain