Flashback Friday: A Dozen Mark Twain Quotes To Carry Through the Weekend

Illustration by the author

No question Mark Twain was one of America's great wits. Do you think he would have hosted a television show had he lived in the latter part of the last century? When I read some of these quotes, especially the latter ones on this page, I can't help but think of Groucho. His advice for writers is as pointed and spot on as his observations about life. It's interesting how Twain's observations and witticisms never go out of style.

EdNote: Most of this was posted in 2015. I added one and also boldfaced a pair that I thought especially relevant today.

“If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.”

“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.”

“God created war so that Americans would learn geography.”

“Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.”

“If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you're mis-informed.” 

“Education: the path from cocky ignorance to miserable uncertainty.”

"Definition of a classic — something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read."

“Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I've done it thousands of times.”

“A successful book is not made of what is in it, but what is left out of it.”

“A gentleman is someone who knows how to play the banjo and doesn't.”

“There is nothing so annoying as having two people talking when you're busy interrupting.”

“Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.”

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You can read all the Mark Twain quotes you want here on Wikiquote. I just wanted to help get you started, in the event that it's been a while since you dug into Twain.