Quotes About Author

We may not pay Satan reverence, for that would be indiscreet, but we can at least respect his talents.

It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.

Hain't we got all the fools in town on our side? And hain't that a big enough majority in any town?

One should never use exclamation points in writing. It is like laughing at your own joke.

Words are only painted fire, a look is the fire itself. She gave that look, and carried it away to the treasury of heaven, where all things that are divine belong.

whenever the literary german dives into a sentence, this is the last you are going to see of him till he emerges on the other side of his atlantic with his verb in his mouth.

The rule is perfect: in all matters of opinion our adversaries are insane.

Only one thing is impossible for God: To find any sense in any copyright law on the planet.

As to the adjective: when in doubt, strike it out.

Everything human is pathetic. The secret source of humor itself is not joy, but sorrow. There is no humor in Heaven.

A discriminating irreverence is the creator and protector of human liberty.

I haven't a particle of confidence in a man who has no redeeming petty vices whatsoever.

Conformity—the natural instinct to passively yield to that vague something recognized as authority.

We met a great many other interesting people, among them Lewis Carroll, author of the immortal Alice--but he was only interesting to look at, for he was the silliest and shyest full-grown man I have ever met except Uncle Remus.

And when he awoke in the morning and looked upon the wretchedness about him, his dream had had its usual effect: it had intensified the sordidness of his surroundings a thousandfold.

Barring that natural expression of villainy which we all have, the man looked honest enough.

A historian who would convey the truth must lie. Often he must enlarge the truth by diameters, otherwise his reader would not be able to see it.

A solemn, unsmiling, sanctimonious old iceberg who looked like he was waiting for a vacancy in the Trinity.

In certain trying circumstances, urgent circumstances, desperate circumstances, profanity furnishes a relief denied even to prayer.

Experience is an author's most valuable asset; experience is the thing that puts the muscle and the breath and the warm blood into the book he writes.

It made one mad, for pleasure; and we could not take our eyes from him, and the looks that went out of our eyes came from our hearts, and their dumb speech was worship.

It gratified all the vicious vanity that was in him;

He would be a consul no doubt by and by, at some foreign port, of the language of which he was ignorant; though if ignorance of language were a qualification he might have been a consul at home.

Always—from all companies, high or low—she went forth richer in honor and esteem than when she came.