Mark Twain died more than a century ago, but his words have kept living and inspired many people throughout the years. Even nowadays, his wise words find a way to inspire souls who desperately need motivation. Mark Twain’s real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens and he was an American writer, publisher, and lecturer. He always had something to say, from simple things to some more complicated topics. He had a riveting biography and wrote exceptional books which gave us a close look into the late 19th century America. Let’s see some of his most famous and inspiring quotes. 

The Most Famous and Inspiring Mark Twain Quotes

‘Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things 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.’
‘Always do what is right. It will gratify half of mankind and astound the other.’
‘The finest clothing made is a person’s own skin, but, of course, society demands something more than this.’
‘The secret of getting ahead is getting started.’
‘Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection.’
‘Wrinkles should merely indicate where the smiles have been.’
‘With courage, you will dare to take risks, have the strength to be compassionate, and the wisdom to be humble. Courage is the foundation of integrity.’
‘Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.’
‘Life is short, break the rules. Forgive quickly, kiss slowly. Love truly. Laugh uncontrollably and never regret anything that makes you smile.’
‘It is wiser to find out than suppose.’

‘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.’
‘We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.’
‘The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.’
‘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.’
‘Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.’
‘Don’t part with your illusions. When they are gone you may still exist, but you have ceased to live.’
‘Nothing so needs reforming as other people’s habits.’
‘Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.’
‘Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.’
‘If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you’re misinformed.’
‘Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.’
‘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.’
‘Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you would rather have talked.’

‘Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.’
‘The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.’
‘In a good bookroom, you feel in some mysterious way that you are absorbing the wisdom contained in all the books through your skin, without even opening them.’
‘God created war so that Americans would learn geography.’
‘It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not deserve them.’
‘Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.’
‘Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.’
‘Thousands of geniuses live and die undiscovered – either by themselves or by others.’
‘The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up.’
‘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.’
‘Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.’

‘Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn’t.’
‘Out of all the things I have lost, I miss my mind the most.’
‘Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.
‘Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often.’
‘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.’
‘Do the thing you fear most and the death of fear is certain.’
‘Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest.’
‘When you fish for love, bait with your heart, not your brain.’
‘You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.’
‘A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining but wants it back the minute it begins to rain.’
‘I don’t like to commit myself about heaven and hell – you see, I have friends in both places.’
‘If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you’re misinformed.’
‘Golf is a good walk spoiled.’

‘When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.’
‘I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.’
‘If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.’
‘The man who is a pessimist before 48 knows too much; if he is an optimist after it, he knows too little.’
‘When angry, count to four; when very angry, swear.’
‘I have never taken any exercise, except sleeping and resting, and I never intend to take any.’
‘There’s one way to find out if a man is honest: ask him; if he says yes, you know he’s crooked.’
‘I was gratified to be able to answer promptly, and I did. I said I didn’t know.’
‘Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.’
‘I’ve lived through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.’
‘Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.’
‘The best way to cheer yourself is to try to cheer someone else up.’
‘A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.’
‘The easy confidence with which I know another man’s religion is folly teaches me to suspect that my own is also.’
‘The trouble is not in dying for a friend, but in finding a friend worth dying for.’
‘Thunder is good, thunder is impressive, but it is lightning that does the work.’
‘All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure.’
‘Man was made at the end of the week’s work when God was tired.’
‘History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.’
‘Never put off till tomorrow what may be done the day after tomorrow just as well.’
‘If animals could speak, the dog would be a blundering outspoken fellow; but the cat would have the rare grace of never saying a word too much.’
‘The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.’
‘I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.’
‘It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.’
‘Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.’
‘Never allow someone to be your priority while allowing yourself to be their option.’
‘Life does not consist mainly, or even largely, of facts or happenings. It consists mainly of the storm of thoughts that is forever flowing through one’s head.’
‘The most interesting information comes from children, for they tell all they know and then stop.’
‘Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.’
‘Only one thing is impossible for God: To find any sense in any copyright law on the planet.’
‘A half-truth is the most cowardly of lies.’

‘The more I learn about people, the more I like my dog.’
‘Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I’ve done it thousands of times.’
‘All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure.’
‘Give every day the chance to become the most beautiful of your life.’
‘The world owes you nothing. It was here first.’
‘Do something every day that you don’t want to do. This is the golden rule for acquiring the habit of doing your duty without pain.’
‘Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.’
‘Let us endeavor so to live so that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.’
‘I make it a rule never to smoke while I’m sleeping.’
‘I can teach anybody how to get what they want out of life. The problem is that I can’t find anybody who can tell me what they want.’
‘To get the full value of joy you must have someone to divide it with.’
‘Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to.’
‘Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please.’
‘I can live for two months on a good compliment.’
‘It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.’
‘The more you explain it, the more I don’t understand it.’
‘Work is a necessary evil to be avoided.’
‘The human race has only one really effective weapon and that is laughter.’
‘Principles have no real force except when one is well-fed.’
‘The Bible has noble poetry in it… and some good morals and a wealth of obscenity, and upwards of a thousand lies.’
‘A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.’

‘There is a charm about the forbidden that makes it unspeakably desirable.’
‘A clear conscience is the sure sign of a bad memory.’
‘If voting made any difference they wouldn’t let us do it.’
‘I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.’
‘Books are for people who wish they were somewhere else.’
‘It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.’
‘Never tell the truth to people who are not worthy of it.’
‘Don’t wait. The time will never be just right.’