“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and
narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts.”
—Mark Twain
One of the stops on our recent trip was Mark Twain’s home in
Hartford, CT. Twain, whose real name was Samuel Clemens, moved to this house
with his wife Olivia (“Livy”) in 1874. He and his family enjoyed some of their
happiest years here, before financial problems forced them to move to Europe
in 1891.
I’ve only read one or two of Mark Twain’s books, but after
seeing Ken Burns’ excellent documentary, I want to read more (I still haven’t
gotten around to reading Twain’s autobiography). He fascinates me. Here are some of
my favorite Mark Twain quotes:
A person who won't
read has no advantage over one who can't read.
Substitute “damn”
every time you’re inclined to write “very”; your editor will delete it and the
writing will be just as it should be. (I think of this when I’m
tempted to use the word “very”!)
I am an old man and
have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.
What a wee little part
of a person’s life are his acts and his words! His real life is led in his
head, and is known to none but himself.
The difference between
the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning
and a lightning bug.
Courage is resistance
to fear, mastery of fear—not absence of fear.
Travel is fatal to
prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it
sorely on these accounts.
Keep away from people
who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really
great make you feel that you, too, can become great.
In a good bookroom you
feel in some mysterious way that you are absorbing the wisdom contained in all
the books through your skin, without even opening them.
Life is short, break
the rules, forgive quickly, kiss slowly, love truly, laugh uncontrollably, and
never regret anything that made you smile. Twenty years from now you will be
more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So
throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds
in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
The two most
important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out
why.(Friday we’ll resume our travels in the
“The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret
of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small
manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.”
—Mark Twain
