Mark Twain-isms

We’ve all heard of and read Mark Twain, the late 19th century American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher and lecturer. (Thank you Tom Sawyer and 8th grade English!) He has been lauded as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced,” and even now, more than 100 years later, it’s tough to find somebody that supersedes him. Here, a few of his best quotes.

“Why shouldn’t truth be stranger than fiction? Fiction, after all, has to make sense.”

“Man—a creature made at the end of the week’s work when God was tired.”

“A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”

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

“When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant that I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21 I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.”

“I don’t like to commit myself about heaven and hell. You see, I have friends in both places.”

“The radical of one century is the conservative of the next. The radical invents the views. When he has worn them out, the conservative adopts them.”

“When your friends begin to flatter you on how young you look, its a sure sign you’re getting old.”

“It is not best that we should all think alike; it is differences of opinion that make horse races.”

”There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist.”

“Loyalty to a petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul.”

“Let us endeavor to live so that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.”