25 Quotes from MARK TWAIN that are Worth Listening To! | Life-Changing Quotes

About "MARK  TWAIN" :

On Nov. 30, 1835, the small town of Florida, Mo. witnessed the birth of its most famous son. Samuel Langhorne Clemens was welcomed into the world as the sixth child of John Marshall and Jane Lampton Clemens. Little did John and Jane know, their son Samuel would one day be known as Mark Twain - America's most famous literary icon. Approximately four years after his birth, in 1839, the Clemens family moved 35 miles east to the town of Hannibal. A growing port city that lie along the banks of the Mississippi, Hannibal was a frequent stop for steam boats arriving by both day and night from St. Louis and New Orleans. Samuel's father was a judge, and he built a two-story frame house at 206 Hill Street in 1844. As a youngster, Samuel was kept indoors because of poor health. However, by age nine, he seemed to recover from his ailments and joined the rest of the town's children outside. He then attended a private school in Hannibal. When he was 12, his father died of pneumonia, and at 13, Samuel left school to become a printer's apprentice. After two short years, he joined his brother Orion's newspaper as a printer and editorial assistant. It was here that young Samuel found he enjoyed writing. At 17, he left Hannibal behind for a printer's job in St. Louis. While in St. Louis, Clemens became a river pilot's apprentice. He became a licensed river pilot in 1858. Clemens' pseudonym, Mark Twain, comes from his days as a river pilot. It is a river term which means two fathoms or 12-feet when the depth of water for a boat is being sounded. "Mark twain" means that is safe to navigate. Because the river trade was brought to a stand still by the Civil War in 1861, Clemens began working as a newspaper reporter for several newspapers all over the United States. In 1870, Clemens married Olivia Langdon, and they had four children.Twain began to gain fame when his story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calavaras County" appeared in the New York Saturday Press on November 18, 1865. Twain's first book, "The Innocents Abroad," was published in 1869, "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" in 1876, and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" in 1885. He wrote 28 books and numerous short stories, letters and sketches. Mark Twain passed away on April 21, 1910, but has a following still today. His childhood home is open to the public as a museum in Hannibal, and Calavaras County in California holds the Calavaras County Fair and Jumping Frog Jubilee every third weekend in May. Walking tours are given in New York City of places Twain visited near his birthday every year.

25 Quotes from MARK  TWAIN :

1) “Nothing needs reforming so much as other people's habits".

2) "a book which people praise and don't read''. 

3) ''Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life''.

4) "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do 

than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. 

Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover "

5) 'Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company'.

6) ''When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have 

the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much 

he had learned in seven years".

7) "Humor is mankind’s greatest blessing".

8) ''Everything human is pathetic. The secret source of humor itself is not joy but sorrow. 

There is no humor in heaven".

9) "Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But 

I repeat myself"'.

10) "The secret of getting ahead is getting started".

11) "In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on".

12) "Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one’s definition  of your life; define yourself".

13) "Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired".

14) "If we couldn't laugh we would all go insane".

15) "Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or 

your self-confidence".

16) "Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length".

17) "Half the world is composed of people who have something to say and can't, and the 

other half who have nothing to say and keep on saying it".

18) "The best way out is always through".

19) "I am not a teacher, but an awakener".

20) "I'm not confused. I'm just well mixed".

21) "Forgive me my nonsense as I also forgive the nonsense of those who think they talk 

sense".

22) "A diplomat is a man who always remembers a woman's birthday but never 

remembers her age".

23) "Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words".

24) "A mother takes twenty years to make a man of her boy, and another woman makes a 

fool of him in twenty minutes".

25) "The world is full of willing people, some willing to work, the rest willing to let them.

The afternoon knows what the morning never suspected".