Mark Twain, [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835-1910) American author and humorist Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quote Share via Email Print this Page [31-60] of 78 Mark Twain quotesMark Twain QuotesMark Twain Previous 30 quotes Next 30 quotes For in a Republic, who is "the country?" Is it the Government which is for the moment in the saddle? Why, the Government is merely a servant -- merely a temporary servant; it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn't. Its function is to obey orders, not originate them.~ Mark Twain I am different from Washington; I have a higher, grander standard of principle. Washington could not lie. I can lie, but I won't.~ Mark Twain Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul.~ Mark Twain When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.~ Mark Twain Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits.~ Mark Twain The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin.~ Mark Twain Now what I contend is that my body is my own, at least I have always so regarded it. If I do harm through my experimenting with it, it is I who suffers, not the state.~ Mark Twain Each must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, and which course is patriotic and which isn’t. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide against your convictions is to be an unqualified and inexcusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let man label you as they may. If you alone of all the nation shall decide one way, and that way be the right way according to your convictions of the right, you have done your duty by yourself and by your country- hold up your head! You have nothing to be ashamed of.~ Mark Twain My kind of loyalty was to one's country, not to its institutions or its officeholders. The country is the real thing, the substantial thing, the eternal thing; it is the thing to watch over, and care for, and be loyal to; institutions are extraneous, they are its mere clothing, and clothing can wear out, become ragged, cease to be comfortable, cease to protect the body from winter, disease, and death.~ Mark Twain If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed.~ Mark Twain It is our nature to conform; it is a force which not many people can successfully resist. What is its seat? The inborn requirement of self-approval.~ Mark Twain Whenever you find you are on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.~ Mark Twain God made the Idiot for practice, and then He made the School Board.~ Mark Twain We are discreet sheep; we wait to see how the drove is going, and then go with the drove.~ Mark Twain Fleas can be taught nearly anything that a Congressman can.~ Mark Twain A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.~ Mark Twain Often, the surest way to convey information is to tell the strict truth.~ Mark Twain Truth is the most valuable thing we have, so I try to conserve it.~ Mark Twain Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream.~ Mark Twain Education consists mainly of what we have unlearned.~ Mark Twain Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.~ Mark Twain How you can win the population for war: At first, the statesman will invent cheap lying, that impute the guilt of the attacked nation, and each person will be happy over this deceit, that calm the conscience. It will study it detailed and refuse to test arguments of the other opinion. So he will convince step for step even therefrom that the war is just and thank God, that he, after this process of grotesque even deceit, can sleep better.~ Mark Twain I am aware that when even the brightest mind in our world has been trained up from childhood in a superstition of any kind, it will never be possible for that mind, in its maturity, to examine sincerely, dispassionately, and conscientiously any evidence or any circumstance which shall seem to cast a doubt upon the validity of that superstition... (more)~ Mark Twain Travel is lethal to prejudice.~ Mark Twain Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to reform.~ Mark Twain The mania for giving the Government power to meddle with the private affairs of cities or citizens is likely to cause endless trouble, through the rivaly of schools and creeds that are anxious to obtain official recognition, and there is great danger that our people will lose our independence of thought and action which is the cause of much of our greatness, and sink into the helplessness of the Frenchman or German who expects his government to feed him when hungry, clothe him when naked, to prescribe when his child may be born and when he may die, and, in time, to regulate every act of humanity from the cradle to the tomb, including the manner in which he may seek future admission to paradise.~ Mark Twain All Congresses and Parliaments have a kindly feeling for idiots, and a compassion for them, on account of personal experience and heredity.~ Mark Twain Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest.~ Mark Twain There is no distinctly native American criminal class save Congress.~ Mark Twain Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.~ Mark Twain Previous 30 quotes Next 30 quotes Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print