This is the only site which published authentic Mark Twain quotes that linked to the actual sources.
I don’t just mentioned the source of each quote, I linked to it, so you can actually see the very line as published.
Mind you, I do not use any random books, magazines or websites as sources.
I made sure the sources are credible.
As you know there are lots of Mark Twain misquotes out there.
Mark Twain was an American author and humorist who is well-known for his novels “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer“.
In his life time, he wrote many profound and witty words of wisdom in his time.
This Missouri native writer is known for his keen wit and incisive satire.
Who doesn’t enjoy his many aphorisms, quips, witticisms, insights and epiphanies.
Authentic Mark Twain Quotations
Below are just some great authentic Mark Twain quotes which are easy to understand and insightful.
“Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.” – Mark Twain
“Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.” – Mark Twain
(Note written on a card sent to the Young People’s Society, Greenpoint Presbyterian Church, Brooklyn, New York, February 16, 1901) (visual source)
“Each person is born to one possession which out values all his others- his last breath.” – Mark Twain
“The man with a new idea is a crank until the idea succeeds.” – Mark Twain
“A man is never more truthful than when he acknowledges himself a liar.” – Mark Twain
“By trying we can easily learn to endure adversity. Another man’s, I mean.” – Mark Twain
“The critic’s symbol should be the tumble-bug: he deposits his egg in somebody else’s dung, otherwise he could not hatch it.” – Mark Twain
“The older we grow the greater becomes our wonder at how much ignorance one can contain without bursting one’s clothes.” – Mark Twain
“It is the will of God that we must have critics, and missionaries, and Congressmen, and humorists, and we must bear the burden.” – Mark Twain
“Good breeding consists in concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person.” – Mark Twain
“What is the difference between a taxidermist and a tax collector? The taxidermist takes only your skin.” – Mark Twain
“When in doubt tell the truth.” – Mark Twain
“Truth is more of a stranger than fiction.” – Mark Twain
“Honesty is the best policy – when there is money in it.” – Mark Twain
“To be good is noble; but to show others how to be good is nobler and no trouble.” – Mark Twain
“All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then Success is sure.” – Mark Twain
“…the lack of money is the root of all evil.” – Mark Twain
“If you wish to lower yourself in a person’s favor, one good way is to tell his story over again, the way you heard it.” – Mark Twain
“On the whole, it is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not deserve them.” – Mark Twain
“Heaven goes by favor. If it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in.” – Mark Twain
“…when a person cannot deceive himself the chances are against his being able to deceive other people.” – Mark Twain
“…there was never yet an uninteresting life. Such a thing is an impossibility. Inside of the dullest exterior there is a drama, a comedy, and a tragedy.” – Mark Twain
“Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to.” – Mark Twain
“Classic” A book which people praise and don’t read.” – Mark Twain
“Education consists mainly in what we have unlearned.” – Mark Twain
“The best way to cheer yourself is to try to cheer somebody else up.” – Mark Twain
“Dying man couldn’t make up his mind which place to go to — both have their advantages, ‘heaven for climate, hell for company!'” – Mark Twain
“To create man was a quaint and original idea, but to add the sheep was tautology.” – Mark Twain
“Noise proves nothing, Often a hen who has merely laid an egg cackles as if she had laid an asteroid.” – Mark Twain
“Supposing is good, but finding out is better.” – Mark Twain
“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear — not absence of fear.” – Mark Twain
“It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world, and moral courage so rare.” – Mark Twain
“Why is it that we rejoice at a birth and grieve at a funeral? It is because we are not the person involved.” – Mark Twain
“Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.” – Mark Twain
“The first half of it consists of the capacity to enjoy without the chance; the last half consists of the chance without the capacity. ” – Mark Twain
“Man will do many things to get himself loved, he will do all things to get himself envied.” – Mark Twain
“Faith is believing what you know ain’t so.” – Mark Twain
“Wit, by itself, is of little account. It becomes of moment only when grounded on wisdom.” – Mark Twain
“Circumstances make man, not man circumstances.” – Mark Twain
“The man who is a pessimist before 48 knows too much; if he is an optimist after it, he knows too little.” – Mark Twain
“There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist, except an old optimist.” – Mark Twain
“When one reads Bibles, one is less surprised at what the Deity knows than at what he doesn’t know.” – Mark Twain
“Name the greatest of all the inventors. Accident.” – Mark Twain
“Whoever has lived long enough to find out what life is, knows how deep a debt of gratitude we owe to Adam, the first greatbenefactor of our race. He brought death into the world.” – Mark Twain
“What a good thing Adam had – when he said a good thing he knew nobody had said it before.” – Mark Twain
“Praise is well, compliment is well, but affection – that is the last and final and most precious reward that any man can win, whether by character or achievement…” – Mark Twain
(Mark Twain’s Speeches, Harper & Brothers, 1910, Books, Authors, And Hats, Pilgrim’s Club Luncheon, Savoy Hotel, June 25, 1907, P. 40)
“…age is not determined by years, but by trouble and by infirmities of mind and body…” – Mark Twain
“Life should begin with age and its privileges and accumulations, and end with youth and its capacity to splendidly enjoy such advantages.” – Mark Twain
“When angry, count four; when very angry, swear.” – Mark Twain
“Concerning the difference between man and the jackass: some observers hold that there isn’t any. But this wrongs the jackass.” – Mark Twain
“My books are water: those of the great geniuses are wine. Everybody drinks water.” – Mark Twain
“Be careless in your dress if you must, but keep a tidy soul.” – Mark Twain
“…conscience, man’s moral medicine chest…” – Mark Twain
“An uneasy conscience is a hair in the mouth.” – Mark Twain
“There is no such thing as material covetousness. All covetousness is spiritual…” – Mark Twain
“There are several good protections against temptations but the surest is cowardice.” – Mark Twain
“I like criticism, but it must be my way.” – Mark Twain
“If a critic should start a religion it would not have any object but to convert angels, and they wouldn’t need it.” – Mark Twain
“Often, the less there is to justify a traditional custom, the harder it is to get rid of it.” – Mark Twain
“Have a place for everything and keep the thing somewhere else. This is not advice. It is merely custom.” – Mark Twain
“It is easier to stay out than get out.” – Mark Twain
“There are many scapegoats for our blunders, but the most popular one is Providence.” – Mark Twain
“Pity is for the living, envy is for the dead.” – Mark Twain
“Each race determines for itself what indecencies are. Nature knows no indecencies; man invents them.” – Mark Twain
“We adore titles and heredities in our hearts, and ridicule them with our mouths. This is our Democratic privilege.” – Mark Twain
“The dictionary says a carbuncle is a kind of jewel. Humor is out of place in a dictionary.” – Mark Twain
“It takes your enemy and your friend, working together, to hurt you to the heart; the one to slander you and the other to get thenews to you.” – Mark Twain
“Man will do many things to get himself loved, he will do all things to get himself envied.” – Mark Twain
“…when a person knows how to use his eyes, everything has got a meaning to it; but most people’s eyes ain’t any good to them.” – Mark Twain
“Fame is a vapor; popularity an accident; the only earthly certainty is oblivion.” – Mark Twain
“Familiarity breeds contempt – and children.” – Mark Twain
“Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them the rest of us could not succeed.” – Mark Twain
“…the more things are forbidden, the more popular they become.” – Mark Twain
“An enemy can partly ruin a man, but it takes a good-natured injudicious friend to complete the thing and make it perfect.” – Mark Twain
“Hunger is the handmaid of genius.” – Mark Twain
“If God is what people say there can be no one in the universe so unhappy as He; for He sees unceasingly myriads of His creatures suffering unspeakable miseries–and besides this foresees how they are going to suffer during the remainder of their lives.” – Mark Twain
“Man is the Reasoning Animal. Such is the claim. I think it is open to dispute.” – Mark Twain
“Indecency, vulgarity, obscenity (these are strictly confined to man); he invented them.” – Mark Twain
“Man is The Animal that Laughs. But so does the monkey, as Mr. Darwin pointed out; and so does the Australian bird that is called the laughing jackass.” – Mark Twain
“Man is the only Slave. And he is the only animal who enslaves. He has always been a slave in one form or another, and has always held other slaves in bondage under him in one way or another.” – Mark Twain
“Of all the animals, man is the only one that is cruel. He is the only one that inflicts pain for the pleasure of doing it.” – Mark Twain
“Man was made at the end of the week’s work, when God was tired.” – Mark Twain
“Of course no man is entirely in his right mind at any time…” – Mark Twain
“…sanity and happiness are an impossible combination.” – Mark Twain
“No sane man can be happy, for to him life is real, and he sees what a fearful thing it is.” – Mark Twain
“When we remember that we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.” – Mark Twain
“It is just like man’s vanity and impertinence to call an animal dumb because it is dumb to his dull perceptions.” – Mark Twain
“The average man’s a coward.” – Mark Twain
“One never ceases to make a hero of one’s self (in private)” – Mark Twain
“If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man.” – Mark Twain
“…virtue never has been as respectable as money.” – Mark Twain
“We have to be despised by somebody whom we regard as above us, or we are not happy; we have to have somebody to worship and envy, or we cannot be content.” – Mark Twain
“Prosperity is the best protector of principle.” – Mark Twain
“Blasphemy? No, it is not blasphemy. If God is as vast as that, he is above blasphemy; if He is as little as that, He is beneath it.” – Mark Twain
“…war talk by men who have been in a war is always interesting; whereas moon talk by a poet who has not been in the moon is likely to be dull.” – Mark Twain
“…an ecstasy is a thing that will not go into words; it feels like music, and one cannot tell about music so that another person can get the feeling of it.” – Mark Twain
“The unspoken word is capital. We can invest it or we can squander it.” – Mark Twain
“God’s inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn.” – Mark Twain
“Human nature is the same everywhere; it deifies success, it has nothing but scorn for defeat.” – Mark Twain
“Of the demonstrably wise there are but two: those who commit suicide, and those who keep their reasoning faculties atrophied with drink.” – Mark Twain