Selected Words of Wisdom and Wit
“An honest man in politics shines more there than he would elsewhere.” — A Tramp Abroad, Part 2 (Chapter 9)
”That’s the difference between governments and individuals. Governments don’t care, individuals do.” — A Tramp Abroad, Part 6 (Chapter 39)
“Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.” — Draft manuscript, quoted by Albert Bigelow Paine in Mark Twain: A Biography
“To lodge all power in one party and keep it there is to insure bad government and the sure and gradual deterioration of the public morals.” — Mark Twain’s Autobiography
“Patriotism is usually the refuge of the scoundrel. He is the man who talks the loudest.” — Education and Citizenship (Speech)
“In religion and politics people’s beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination…” — Autobiography of Mark Twain
“I think I might have developed into a very capable pickpocket if I had remained in the public service a year or two.” — Roughing It, Chapter 25
“Only when a republic’s life is in danger should a man uphold his government when it is in the wrong. There is no other time.” — Papers of the Adams Family
“No country can be well governed unless its citizens as a body keep religiously before their minds that they are the guardians of the law and that the law officers are only the machinery for its execution, nothing more.” — The Gilded Age, Part 4 (Chapter 29)
“All large political doctrines are rich in difficult problems — problems that are quite above the average citizen’s reach. And that is not strange, since they are also above the reach of the ablest minds in the country; after all the fuss and all the talk, not one of those doctrines has been conclusively proven to be the right one and the best.” — “The Privilege of the Grave,” Who Is Mark Twain? [External link to The New Yorker – Requires Subscription]
“The radical invents the views. When he has worn them out the conservative adopts them.” — Mark Twain’s Notebook
“In the beginning of a change, the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot.” — Mark Twain’s Notebook
“None but the dead have free speech.” — Mark Twain’s Notebook
“Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to reform.” — Mark Twain’s Notebook
“The government is not best which secures mere life and property — there is a more valuable thing — manhood.” — Mark Twain’s Notebook
“The political and commercial morals of the United States are not merely food for laughter, they are an entire banquet.” — Mark Twain in Eruption [external link to Amazon.com, book only available in hard-copy]
“I think it is not wise for an emperor, or a king, or a president, to come down into the boxing ring, so to speak, and lower the dignity of his office by meddling in the small affairs of private citizens.” — Mark Twain in Eruption [link above]
