Monday, March 28, 2016

Mark Twain's Maxims





Maxims of Mark Twain 
All ideas are second hand, consciously and unconsciously drawn from a million outside sources.
Circumstances make man, not man circumstances.
Civilization is a limitless multiplication of unnecessary
necessaries.
Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence in
society.
Do your duty today and repent tomorrow.
Do good when you can, and charge when you think they will stand it.
Difference between savage and civilized man: one is painted, the
other gilded.
Do not put off till tomorrow what can be put off till
day-after-tomorrow just as well.
Do not tell fish stories where the people know you; but
particularly, don't tell them where they know the fish.
Etiquette requires us to admire the human race.
Everybody's private motto: It's better to be popular than right.
Every man is wholly honest to himself and to God, but not to any one
else.
Geological time is not money.
Good wine needs no bush; a jug is the thing.
God's noblest work? Man. Who found it out? Man.
Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal
life.
Golden rule: Made of hard metal so it could stand severe wear, it
not being known at that time that butter would answer.


It is a wise child that knows its own father, and an unusual one
that unreservedly approves of him.
Necessity is the mother of "taking chances".

Nothing is made in vain, but the fly came near it.

Never tell the truth to people who are not worthy of it.

Nothing incites to money-crimes like great poverty or great wealth.

None but an ass pays a compliment and asks a favor at the same time.
There are many asses.
Optimist: Day-dreamer in his small clothes.
Optimist: Day-dreamer more elegantly spelled.
Optimist: Person who travels on nothing from nowhere to happiness.
Obscurity and a competence. That is the life that is best worth
living.

Pessimist: The optimist who didn't arrive.

Prosperity is the best protector of principle.
There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist, except an old
optimist.
We all live in the protection of certain cowardices which we call
our principles.

Work and play are words used to describe the same thing under
differing conditions.

We often feel sad in the presence of music without words; and often
more than that in the presence of music without music.
We are always more anxious to be distinguished for a talent which we
do not possess, than to be praised for the fifteen which we do
possess.
Wherefore being all of one mind, we do highly resolve that
government of the grafted by the grafter for the grafter shall not
perish from the earth.

 

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