QuotesMark Twain quotes
Mark Twain was the pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835 to 1910), the American author of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Twain may be the most misquoted writer in English, so this page keeps to lines found in his published books and notes.
Quotations
When in doubt, tell the truth.
Mark Twain, Following the Equator (1897)Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't.
Mark Twain, Following the Equator (1897)Man is the Only Animal that Blushes. Or needs to.
Mark Twain, Following the Equator (1897)Be good and you will be lonesome.
Mark Twain, Following the Equator (1897)"Classic." A book which people praise and don't read.
Mark Twain, Following the Equator (1897)Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.
Mark Twain, Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894)Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.
Mark Twain, Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894)Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, and Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.
Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876)The report of my death was an exaggeration.
Mark Twain, Note to a journalist, 1897Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.
Mark Twain, Note to the Young People's Society, Brooklyn, 1901
Nothing matches. Try a shorter word, or choose All.
Good to know
- Several lines come from "Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar", the mock almanac sayings Twain printed at the head of chapters in two of his books.