Quotations by Mark Twain

When a prisoner of style escapes it’s called an evasion.

Mark Twain · Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

All kings is mostly rapscallions, as fur as I can make out.

Mark Twain · Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

If you are with the quality, or at a funeral, or trying to go to sleep when you ain't sleepy — if you are anywheres where it won't do for you to scratch, why you will itch all over in upwards of a thousand places.

Mark Twain · Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

There comes a time in every rightly constructed boy's life when he has a raging desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure.

Mark Twain · The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Complete

You can’t pray a lie—I found that out.

Mark Twain · Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Kings is kings, and you got to make allowances. Take them all around, they’re a mighty ornery lot. It’s the way they’re raised.

Mark Twain · Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

It’s the little things that smooths people’s roads the most, down here below.

Mark Twain · Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

The average man don’t like trouble and danger.

Mark Twain · Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

When one writes a novel about grown people, he knows exactly where to stop—that is, with a marriage; but when he writes of juveniles, he must stop where he best can.

Mark Twain · The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Complete

To promise not to do a thing is the surest way in the world to make a body want to go and do that very thing.

Mark Twain · The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Complete

Often, the less there is to justify a traditional custom, the harder it is to get rid of it.

Mark Twain · The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Complete

Homely truth is unpalatable.

Mark Twain · The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Complete