| Mark Twain {the pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens} was an American humorist, satirist, writer & lecturer. He is most noted for his novels "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" [1876] & "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" [1885], as well as his travel writings and his numerous pithy quotes & sayings. |
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connected with the revolutionary "Working Minds Philosophy of Empowerment" created by G.E. Nordell.
After WMail Issue #72 in October 2007, essays & quotations & news were posted to the Dateline Chamesa blog
"The man who does not read good books has no advantage "The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin."
"No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session." (1866)
"Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself."
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education."
"Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest."
"Whenever you find you are on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect."
"Comedy is British, wit is French, humor is American."
"In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane."
"He will by and by convince himself that war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep "Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them the rest of us could not succeed."
"One most striking difference between a cat and a lie is that a cat has only nine lives."
"Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to."
"When in doubt tell the truth."
"Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first."
"Thunder is impressive, but it is the lightning that does all the work."
"May every liar be blessed with a good memory."
"The public is the only critic whose opinion is worth anything at all."
"Work is whatever a body is obliged to do. Play is whatever a body is not obliged to do."
"There's always something about your success that displeases even your best friends."
over the man who cannot read."  {Issue #8}
     
"Always do right. This will surprise some people and astonish the rest."  {Issue #19}
     
"Clothes make the man; naked people have little or no influence in society."  {Issue #36}
     
"All you need in this life are ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure."  {Issue #36}
     
"It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American
criminal class except Congress."  {Issue #38}
     
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things [that] you didn't do
than by the ones [that] you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour.
Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."  {Issue #43}
     
"When in doubt, tell the truth."  {Issue #51}
     
"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect."  {Issue #60}
     
"The lack of money is the root of all evil."  {Issue #63}
     
"It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things:
freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them."  {Issue #63}
     
"We all do no end of feeling, and we mistake it for thinking. And out of it we get an aggregation which we consider a boon. Its name is public opinion. It is held in reverence. Some think it the voice of God."  {Issue #63}
     
"When I look around me, I am often troubled to see how many people are mad."  {Issue #63}
     
"To create man was a fine and original idea; but to add the sheep was a tautology."  {Issue #63}
     
"It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare."  {Issue #65}
     
Why shouldn't truth be stranger than fiction? Fiction, after all, has to make sense."  {blog 11/2007}
[that] he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception."
(in 'The Mysterious Stranger' [posthumous: 1969])
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