Some More Thoughts on Mark Twain and some Quotes

When I quoted Pascal about the goal of Art being to "instruct and please, " who better an example than Mark Twain.

While I feel Tom Sawyer is really just sort of a dry run for "Huckleberry Finn" ( a genuine American masterpiece) Twain's other works are equally as accessible. 

(About the only thing of his to be avoided are his early newspaper articles from Gold Rush San Francisco. They not only have dated horribly but in a way that is not good at all. It's the kind of stuff of interest only to historians).

Twain created characters for the wandering Huck Finn to run into who were wonderful gems of observation and imagination, including the one widow woman in a small town who, whenever anyone died, was always the first person there to express her condolences. When someone else beat her there finally, she fell into a sulk and just sort of pined away...

But dig these quotes ( I have an old high school friend who is a writer who said on Facebook " I HATE pithy quotes." While she can be very funny, I have always thought she in some way lacked a sense of humor ( in fact, desperately trying to taken very seriously IS at the heart of the books she writes).

Here they are: ( remember, Twain said these things way, way, back and they have been used in different forms by other people since in some cases )

A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining, but wants it back the minute it begins to rain.

Mark Twain

- More quotations on: [Banks]

A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.

Mark Twain

Always acknowledge a fault. This will throw those in authority off their guard and give you an opportunity to commit more.

Mark Twain

- More quotations on: [Humility]

Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.

Mark Twain

An Englishman is a person who does things because they have been done before. An American is a person who does things because they haven't been done before.

Mark Twain

- More quotations on: [Americans]

Anyone who stops learning is old, whether twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing you can do is keep your mind young.

Mark Twain

- More quotations on: [Learning]

Barring that natural expression of villainy which we all have, the man looked honest enough.

Mark Twain

Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.

Mark Twain

- More quotations on: [Books] [Health]

By trying we can easily learn to endure adversity -- another man's I mean.

Mark Twain

- More quotations on: [Adversity]

Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.

Mark Twain

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear.

Mark Twain

- More quotations on: [Courage]

Do something every day that you don't want to do; this is the golden rule for acquiring the habit of doing your duty without pain.

Mark Twain

- More quotations on: [Duty]

Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.

Mark Twain

- More quotations on: [The World]

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

Mark Twain

Education: that which reveals to the wise, and conceals from the stupid, the vast limits of their knowledge.

Mark Twain

Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are more pliable.

Mark Twain

Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn't.

Mark Twain

- More quotations on: [Truth]

George Washington, as a boy, was ignorant of the commonest accomplishments of youth. He could not even lie.

Mark Twain

Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please.

Mark Twain

- More quotations on: [Facts]

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

- More quotations on: [Joy]