Mark Twain quotes

1835–1910 · Florida, MO

Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.
VerifiedMark Twain
Source
The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson, and the Comedy Those Extraordinary Twins, 1894 · Chapter VI epigraph, p. 77
Read at
Internet Archive (New York Public Library scan of the 1894 first edition, Hartford: American Publishing Co.)
Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't.
VerifiedMark Twain
Source
Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World, 1897 · Chapter XV epigraph, p. 156
Read at
Internet Archive (University of North Carolina scan of the 1897 first edition, Hartford: American Publishing Co.)
Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear—not absence of fear. Except a creature be part coward it is not a compliment to say it is brave; it is merely a loose misapplication of the word.
VerifiedMark Twain
Source
The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson, and the Comedy Those Extraordinary Twins, 1894 · Chapter XII epigraph, p. 155
Read at
Internet Archive (New York Public Library scan of the 1894 first edition, Hartford: American Publishing Co.)
Habit is habit, and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed down-stairs a step at a time.
VerifiedMark Twain
Source
The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson, and the Comedy Those Extraordinary Twins, 1894 · Chapter VI epigraph, p. 77
Read at
Internet Archive (New York Public Library scan of the 1894 first edition, Hartford: American Publishing Co.)
Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education.
VerifiedMark Twain
Source
The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson, and the Comedy Those Extraordinary Twins, 1894 · Chapter V epigraph, p. 67
Read at
Internet Archive (New York Public Library scan of the 1894 first edition, Hartford: American Publishing Co.)