Mark Twain, born Samuel Langhorne Clemens on November 30, 1835, in Florida, Missouri, remains an iconic figure in American literature. His contributions have left an indelible mark on the cultural landscape of not only the United States but the world. Twain passed away on April 21, 1910, but his legacy, underscored by his insightful, witty, and often profound observations on human nature and society, lives on. A master storyteller and humorist, Twain’s quotes reflect his sharp wit and deep insight into the human condition. Through characters from his famous works like “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” and “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” Twain explored themes of innocence, societal critique, and the complexities of human morality, leaving a rich trove of wisdom in his wake. This collection of 100 best quotes of Mark Twin thoughtfully organized to reflect various aspects of life and human nature.
Mark Twain Quotes on Personal Virtues and Growth
Mark Twain’s insights on personal virtues and growth offer timeless wisdom on the development of character, the pursuit of knowledge, and the importance of ethical living. His quotes serve as a guide for personal development, encouraging us to reflect on our actions, embrace continuous learning, and strive for a life of virtue and intelligence.
5 Best Mark Twain quotes on Character
“The best way to cheer yourself is to try to cheer someone else up.”
“Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.”
“Character is the architect of achievements.”
“A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.”
“Your character is your most valuable possession, and you carry it with you every day.”
5 Best Mark Twain quotes on Education
“Education consists mainly in what we have unlearned.”
“The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.”
“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.”
“Education is the path from cocky ignorance to miserable uncertainty.”
“Don’t let schooling interfere with your education.”
5 Best Mark Twain quotes on Knowledge
“What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, man would die from a great loneliness of spirit.”
“It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.”
“The trouble with the world is not that people know too little; it’s that they know so many things that just aren’t so.”
“A person who won’t read has no advantage over one who can’t read.”
“When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it happened or not.”
5 Best Mark Twain quotes on Intelligence
“It is not what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”
“I am not an old man and have seen a great deal of trouble, but most of it never happened.”
“The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter—’tis the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.”
“Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat myself.”
“It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.”
5 Best Mark Twain quotes on Wisdom
“Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you’d have preferred to talk.”
“The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.”
“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.”
“Give every day the chance to become the most beautiful day of your life.”
“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.”
5 Best Mark Twain quotes on Virtue
“Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.”
“Truth is the most valuable thing we have. Let us economize it.”
“It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.”
“To be satisfied with what one has; that is wealth. As long as one sorely needs a certain additional amount, that is poverty.”
“Virtue has never been as respectable as money.”
5 Best Mark Twain quotes on Ethics
“Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest.”
“Loyalty to the country always. Loyalty to the government when it deserves it.”
“Honesty is the best policy – when there is money in it.”
“Ethics is the difference between knowing what you have a right to do and what is right to do.”
“A clear conscience is the sure sign of a bad memory.”
5 Best Mark Twain quotes on Morality
“Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.”
“Morals are a private matter; they are not a public spectacle.”
“Principles have no real force except when one is well-fed.”
“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.”
“When in doubt, tell the truth. It will confound your enemies and astound your friends.”
5 Best Mark Twain quotes on Courage
“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.”
“It’s easy to be brave from a safe distance.”
“A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.”
“The human race has only one really effective weapon and that is laughter.”
“To succeed in life, you need two things: ignorance and confidence.”
5 Best Mark Twain quotes on Hard Work
“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.”
“Work is a necessary evil to be avoided.”
“The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.”
“Thunder is good, thunder is impressive; but it is lightning that does the work.”
“Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.”
5 Best Mark Twain quotes on Excellence
“The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up.”
“All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure.”
“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”
“Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”
“Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection.”
Mark Twain Quotes on Interpersonal Relations and Inner Life
Mark Twain’s exploration of interpersonal relations and the inner life uncovers the complexities and joys of human connections. His observations offer guidance on nurturing meaningful relationships, understanding oneself, and contributing to a society built on trust, empathy, and love.
5 Best Mark Twain quotes on Love
“Love is the irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired.”
“To get the full value of joy you must have someone to divide it with.”
“Love seems the swiftest, but it is the slowest of all growths.”
“The best way to cheer yourself is to try to cheer someone else up.”
“Life does not consist mainly, or even largely, of facts and happenings. It consists mainly of the storm of thoughts that is forever blowing through one’s head.”
5 Best Mark Twain quotes on Happiness
“The most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.”
“Happiness is a Swedish sunset — it is there for all, but most of us look the other way and lose it.”
“Sanity and happiness are an impossible combination.”
“A man is never more truthful than when he acknowledges himself a liar.”
“The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up.”
5 Best Mark Twain quotes on Soul
“When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.”
“The lack of money is the root of all evil.”
“The soul that can speak through the eyes can also kiss with a gaze.”
“Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”
“What a wee little part of a person’s life are his acts and his words! His real life is led in his head, and is known to none but himself.”
5 Best Mark Twain quotes on Empathy
“Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.”
“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”
“A full belly is little worth where the mind is starved, and the heart.”
“The best way to cheer yourself is to try to cheer someone else up.”
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.”
5 Best Mark Twain quotes on Trust
“Truth is the most valuable thing we have. Let us economize it.”
“It takes two to lie. One to lie and one to listen.”
“A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”
“Loyalty to the country always. Loyalty to the government when it deserves it.”
“If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.”
5 Best Mark Twain quotes on Friendship
“Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.”
“The proper office of a friend is to side with you when you are wrong. Nearly anybody will side with you when you are right.”
“To get the full value of a joy you must have somebody to divide it with.”
“There ain’t no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them.”
“The holy passion of friendship is of so sweet and steady and loyal and enduring a nature that it will last through a whole lifetime, if not asked to lend money.”
Mark Twain Quotes on Societal Values and Governance
Mark Twain was not only a master of wit and satire but also a keen observer of societal values and governance. His quotes on these subjects offer a critical lens through which to examine the structures of power, justice, and community that shape our world.
5 Best Mark Twain quotes on Society
“The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter.”
“All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure.”
“Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence in society.”
“Civilization is the limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessities.”
“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.”
5 Best Mark Twain quotes on Justice
“It is curious – curious that physical courage should be so common in the world, and moral courage so rare.”
“Justice is a temporary thing that must at last come to an end; but the conscience is eternal and will never die.”
“A man is called selfish not for pursuing his own good, but for neglecting his neighbor’s.”
“The more I learn about people, the more I like my dog.”
“Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul.”
5 Best Mark Twain quotes on Democracy
“If voting made any difference they wouldn’t let us do it.”
“Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.”
“In a democracy, you have to be a little bit crazy to want to be a leader.”
“The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination.”
“Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail. What you gain at one end you lose at the other.”
5 Best Mark Twain quotes on Constitution
“No man’s life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session.”
“Loyalty to the country always. Loyalty to the government when it deserves it.”
“It’s the Constitution. It’s Moby Dick. It’s Hamlet.”
“A classic is a book which people praise and don’t read.”
“The very ink with which history is written is merely fluid prejudice.”
5 Best Mark Twain quotes on Leadership
“The best leader is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.”
“To be a leader, you must be a follower first.”
“A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.”
“The secret of success is making your vocation your vacation.”
“The most successful men in the end are those whose success is the result of steady accretion.”
5 Best Mark Twain quotes on Politics
“Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason.”
“The political and commercial morals of the United States are not merely food for laughter, they are an entire banquet.”
“In the beginning of a change, the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot.”
“There are lies, damned lies, and statistics.”
“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to reform (or pause and reflect).”
5 Best Mark Twain quotes on Government
“The government is the only vessel that leaks from the top.”
“Loyalty to the country always. Loyalty to the government when it deserves it.”
“A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.”
“The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination.”
“It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.”
5 Best Mark Twain quotes on Law
“It’s no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense.”
“A person who won’t read has no advantage over one who can’t read.”
“Laws control the lesser man… Right conduct controls the greater one.”
“The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don’t want, drink what you don’t like, and do what you’d rather not.”
“To succeed in life, you need two things: ignorance and confidence.”
5 Best Mark Twain quotes on Power
“The less there is to justify a traditional custom, the harder it is to get rid of it.”
“All power is a trust—that we are accountable for its exercise, that from the people and for the people all springs, and all must exist.”
“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”
“The greatest of empires, is the empire over one’s self.”
“Power, money, persuasion, supplication, persecution—these can lift at a colossal humbug—push it a little—weaken it a little, century by century, but only laughter can blow it to rags and atoms at a blast. Against the assault of laughter, nothing can stand.”
5 Best Mark Twain quotes on Community
“The holy passion of Friendship is so sweet and steady and loyal and enduring a nature that it will last through a whole lifetime, if not asked to lend money.”
“My kind of loyalty was loyalty to one’s country, not to its institutions or its office-holders.”
“The human race is a family, and what affects one member affects all.”
“To do good is noble. To tell others to do good is even nobler and much less trouble.”
“The best way to cheer yourself is to try to cheer someone else up.”
5 Best Mark Twain quotes on Cultural Awareness
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts.”
“The difference between the almost right word and the right word is … the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.”
“Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to.”
“Custom is the great guide of human life.”
“Nothing so needs reforming as other people’s habits.”
Final Words on Mark Twain Quotes
Mark Twain’s wisdom, encapsulated in his quotes, traverses the breadth of human experience—from the personal to the interpersonal, and into the realms of societal values and governance. 100 best Mark Twain quotes offer a timeless reflection on the virtues, challenges, and absurdities of life. As we navigate our paths, Twain’s insights serve as a beacon, guiding us towards personal growth, meaningful connections, and a more enlightened society. In honoring his legacy, we embrace the complexity of the human spirit and the pursuit of a world reflective of Twain’s wit, wisdom, and profound understanding of humanity.
