More than Tom and Huck
By By Tracy L. Brady
Record Reporter
When life gets too confusing, I often turn to famous quotations for insight.
I also try to include them in cards and letters to my friends to recognize momentous occasions. Lately, I have turned to my favorite author, Mark Twain, for a little insight on life in general.
The old man and I agree on many things-exercise is loathsome, healthy people and those with vices will die just the same, and it is easier to please yourself than anyone else.
There was much more to Twain than just Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. He was a man of wit and wisdom with a timeless outlook on life.
Here are a few of his famous quotes that have become favorites of mine. I hope they prove to be as insightful for you as they have been for me.
"Truth is more of a stranger than fiction."
"Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to."
"Familiarity breeds contempt-and children."
"Good breeding consists of concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person."
"Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example."
"A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody has read."
"Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest."
"Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint."
"Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first."
"If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principle difference between a dog and a man."
"It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt."
"Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself."
"The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter."
"The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them."
"In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards."
"If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything."
"I have never taken any exercise except sleeping and resting."
"Under certain circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer."
"Let us so live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry."
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education."
Mark Twain (1835-1910)
