Quotes from Mark Twain

Then I lifted up my hands—stood just so a moment—then I said, with the most awful solemnity: "Let the enchantment dissolve and pass harmless away!

The man who does not read books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them.

I preferred a safe horse to a fast one - I would like to have an excessively gentle horse - a horse with no spirit whatever- a lame one, if he had such a thing. Inside of five minutes I was mounted, and perfectly satisfied with my outfit. I had no time to label him 'This is a horse,' and so if the public took him for a sheep I cannot help it.

In verità, non aveva molto senso sospirare perché lei non era ancora nata. Ma noi siamo fatti così, non ragioniamo quando siamo presi da un sentimento: sentiamo e basta.

Two or three minutes later the murdered man, the blanketed corpse, the lidless coffin, and the open grave were under no inspection but the moon's. The stillness was complete again, too.

Cele mai importante dou? zile din viaÈ›a ta sunt ziua în care te-ai n?scut È™i cea în care afli de ce.

It was fun, scurrying around the breezy hills and through the beautiful canyons. There was that rare thing, novelty, about it; it was a fresh, new, exhilarating sensation, this donkey riding, and worth a hundred worn and threadbare home pleasures.

When I am king, they shall not have bread and shelter only, but also teachings out of books; for a full belly is little worth where the mind is starved, and the heart. I will keep this diligently in my remembrance, that this day's lesson be not lost upon me, and my people suffer thereby; for learning softeneth the heart and breedeth gentleness and charity.

L'avevo messo là dentro senza riflettere, poiché avevo immaginato che sarebbe stato particolarmente comodo averlo lì dentro. E ora, il pensiero che era lì, così a portata di mano e tanto vicino eppure irraggiungibile peggiorava la situazione e la rendeva insopportabile. Già, la cosa che non si può avere è la cosa che più si desidera; tutti lo sanno.

flattened myself out in the dust like a postage stamp

You can find in a text whatever you bring, if you will stand between it and the mirror of your imagination. You may not see your ears, but they will be there. HUNTING

Así, pues, le dije: —Ya sabes, Tom, que no sirvo ni para limpiarte los zapatos. Pero no importa: Dios todopoderoso nos ha creado a todos y a unos los ha dejado ciegos mientras que a otros les ha dado los ojos para verlo todo. Me parece que yo no figuro entre estos últimos; pero sin duda está bien así, puesto que es Dios quien lo ha querido.

Often, as we lay on our faces, a granite boulder, as large as a village church, would start out of the bottom apparently, and seem climbing up rapidly to the surface, till presently it threatened to touch our faces, and we could not resist the impulse to seize an oar and avert the danger.

Una di queste giovani madri non era che una ragazzina e mi fece male al cuore leggere quella sofferenza e pensare che scaturiva dall'animo di una bambina, un animo che non avrebbe dovuto ancora conoscere il dolore, ma soltanto la gioia del mattino della vita.

There are several kinds of stories, but only one difficult kind—the humorous. I will talk mainly about that one. The humorous story is American, the comic story is English, the witty story is French. The humorous story depends for its effect upon the manner of the telling; the comic story and the witty story upon the matter.

seemed like a vast warty bug taking a meditative walk.

Always obey your superiors, if you have any.

Hay una época en la vida de todo muchacho de constitución normal en la que siente un rabioso deseo de ir de una parte a otra y desenterrar algún tesoro oculto.

Considering the elaborate circumstantiality of detail observable in the item, it seems to me that it ought to contain more information than it does. On

A good part of the whispering had been occasioned by an event which was more or less rare—the entrance of visitors: lawyer Thatcher, accompanied by a very feeble and aged man; a fine, portly, middle-aged gentleman with iron-gray hair; and a dignified lady who was doubtless the latter's wife.

eggs. You're a liar! You're another. You're a fighting liar and dasn't take it up. Aw—take a walk! Say—if you give me much more of your sass I'll take and bounce a rock off'n your head. Oh, of course you will. Well I will. Well why don't you do it then? What do you keep saying you will for? Why don't you do it? It's because you're afraid. I ain't afraid. You are.

La charité nous force à tirer le rideau sur le reste de cette scène.

it was borne in upon me that I was standing in the awful presence of the Mother of the German Language.

They will be scourged; and I, whom they have comforted and kindly entreated, must look on and see the great wrong done; it is strange, so strange! that I, the very source of power in this broad realm, am helpless to protect them. But let these miscreants look well to themselves, for there is a day coming when I will require of them a heavy reckoning for this work. For every blow they strike now they shall feel a hundred then.