A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read.

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About Mark Twain

Portrait of Mark Twain

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, and essayist. He has been praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced", with William Faulkner calling him "the father of American literature". Twain's novels include...

More quotations from Mark Twain

In religion and politics, people's beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second hand, and without examination.

The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.

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I don't like to commit myself about heaven and hell-you see, I have friends in both places.

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George Washington, as a boy, was ignorant of the commonest accomplishments of youth. He could not even lie.

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Good breeding consists of concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person.

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More quotations tagged with “literature”

The liveliness of literature lies in its exceptionality, in being the individual, idiosyncratic vision of one human being, in which, to our delight and great surprise, we may find our own vision reflected.

—Salman Rushdie

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Frederick William was deeply disappointed by his son, the future Frederick the Great, who in his youth seemed more interested in French culture, music, and literature than in the military virtues. The father's disaffection turned to actual hatred, and his treatment became so harsh that the young prince decided to run away, with the aid of two accomplices, Lieutenants Katte and Keith. The plan was discovered; Keith escaped, but the prince and Katte were captured and court-martialed. Katte was sentenced to life imprisonment, Frederick to solitary confinement. Frederick William, deciding that Katte's sentence was too lenient, had him beheaded in the presence of Prince Frederick. This drastic measure had the desired effect; Frederick asked the king's pardon and began to apply himself to acquiring the Prussian military philosophy.

—The Little, Brown Book of Anecdotes

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Literature is an occupation in which you have to keep proving your talent to people who have none.

—Jules Renard

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