Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?

It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not deserve them.

It were not best that we should all think alike.

If all men were rich, all men would be poor.

To arrive at a just estimate of a renowned man's character one must judge it by the standards of his time, not ours.

All large political doctrines are rich in difficult problems - problems that are quite above the average citizen's reach. And that is not strange, since they are also above the reach of the ablest minds in the country; after all the fuss and all the talk, not one of those doctrines has been conclusively proven to be the right one and the best.

He had an uncommon fondness for cats. As an old man summering in New Hampshire, Twain even rented kittens from a nearby farm to keep him company until he returned home. "If man could be crossed with the cat," said Twain, "it would improve the man, but it would deteriorate the cat." There's always something about your success that displeases even your best friends.