Mark Twain
American writer and journalist
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
Whenever we come upon one of those intensely right words in a book or a newspaper the resulting effect is physical as well as spiritual, and electrically prompt: it tingles exquisitely around through the walls of the mouth and tastes as tart and crisp and good as the autumn-butter that creams the sumac-berry. One has no time to examine the word and vote upon its rank and standing, the automatic recognition of its supremacy is so immediate.
—Mark Twain, American writer and journalist, William Dean Howells, 1906
Posted on January 14, 2000 at 4:40 PM
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
Yes, take it all around, there is quite a good deal of information in the book. I regret this very much; but really it could not be helped: information appears to stew out of me naturally, like the precious ottar of roses out of the otter. Sometimes it has seemed to me that I would give worlds if I could retain my facts; but it cannot be. The more I calk up the sources, and the tighter I get, the more I leak wisdom. Therefore, I can only claim indulgence at the hands of the reader, not justification.
—Mark Twain, American writer and journalist, Roughing It, 1891
Posted on October 28, 1999 at 11:12 AM
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
What a good thing Adam had. When he said a good thing he knew nobody had said it before.
—Mark Twain, American writer and journalist, Notebooks, 1935
Posted on March 24, 1998 at 9:57 PM
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
You have seen that kind of people who will never let on that they don't know the meaning of a new big word. The more ignorant they are, the more pitifully certain they are to pretend you haven't shot over their heads.
—Mark Twain, American writer and journalist, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, 1889
Posted on June 16, 1998 at 10:31 AM
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
The Germans have an inhuman way of cutting up their verbs. Now a verb has a hard time enough of it in this world when it's all together. It's downright inhuman to split it up. But that's just what those Germans do. They take part of a verb and put it down here, like a stake, and they take the other part of it and put it away over yonder like another stake, and between these two limits they just shovel in German.
—Mark Twain, American writer and journalist, Mark Twain's Speeches, 1900
Posted on July 26, 1999 at 9:34 AM
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
They spell it Vinci and pronounce it Vinchy; foreigners always spell better than they pronounce.
—Mark Twain, American writer and journalist, The Innocents Abroad, 1869
Posted on July 15, 1999 at 8:38 AM
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
War talk by men who have been in a war is always interesting; whereas moon talk by a poet who has not been in the moon is likely to be dull.
—Mark Twain, American writer and journalist, Life on the Mississippi, 1883
Posted on February 24, 1999 at 10:15 AM
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
There are three infallible ways of pleasing an author, and the three form a rising scale of compliment: 1, To tell him you have read one of his books; 2, To tell him you have read all of his books; 3, To ask him to let you read the manuscripts of his forthcoming book. No. 1 admits you to his respect; no. 2 admists you to his admiration; No. 3 carries you clear into his heart.
—Mark Twain, American writer and journalist
Posted on February 26, 2001 at 4:45 PM
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
The true charm of pedestrianism does not lie in the walking, or in the scenery, but in the talking. The walking is good to time the movement of the tongue by, and to keep the blood and the brain stirred up and active; the scenery and the woodsy smells are good to bear in upon a man an unconscious and unobtrusive charm and solace to eye and soul and sense; but the supreme pleasure comes from the talk.
—Mark Twain, American writer and journalist, A Tramp Abroad, 1880
Posted on October 2, 2002 at 6:37 AM
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
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.
—Mark Twain, American writer and journalist
Posted on December 4, 2002 at 7:20 PM
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
I can understand German as well as the maniac that invented it, but I talk it best through an interpreter.
—Mark Twain, American writer and journalist, Quoted in Greatly Exaggerated, ed. by Alex Ayres, 1988
Posted on July 23, 2002 at 5:21 PM
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
You try to tell me anything about the newspaper business! Sir, I have been through it from Alpha to Omaha, and I tell you that the less a man knows the bigger the noise he makes and the higher the salary he commands.
—Mark Twain, American writer and journalist, How I Edited an Agricultural Paper, 1870
Posted on June 10, 2002 at 10:08 AM
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
There is nothing you can say in answer to a compliment. I have been complimented myself a great many times, and they always embarrass me — I always feel that they have not said enough.
—Mark Twain, American writer and journalist, Mark Twain's Speeches, 1907
Posted on June 11, 2002 at 6:27 AM
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
A classic—something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read.
—Mark Twain, American writer and journalist, Speech, 1900
Posted on September 24, 2002 at 7:49 PM
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
There are only two forces that can carry light to all the corners of the globe—the sun in the heavens and the Associated Press down here.
—Mark Twain, American writer and journalist, Spelling and Pictures, 1906
Posted on September 25, 2002 at 8:10 PM
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
There is no such thing as "the Queen's English." The property has gone into the hands of a joint stock company and we own the bulk of the shares!
—Mark Twain, American writer and journalist, Following the Equator
Posted on May 16, 2003 at 2:02 PM
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
Whenever the literary German dives into a sentence, that 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.
—Mark Twain, American writer and journalist, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Posted on July 25, 2003 at 3:05 PM
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
Mastery of the art and spirit of the Germanic language enables a man to travel all day in one sentence without changing cars.
—Mark Twain, American writer and journalist, Christian Science
Posted on August 26, 2003 at 4:38 PM
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter—'tis the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.
—Mark Twain, American writer and journalist
Posted on February 17, 2003 at 12:25 PM
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
My books are water; those of the great geniuses is wine. Everybody drinks water.
—Mark Twain, American writer and journalist, Mark Twain's Notebooks and Journals
Posted on April 25, 2003 at 9:37 AM
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
A big leather-bound volume makes an ideal razorstrap. A thin book is useful to stick under a table with a broken caster to steady it. A large, flat atlas can be used to cover a window with a broken pane. And a thick, old-fashioned heavy book with a clasp is the finest thing in the world to throw at a noisy cat.
—Mark Twain, American writer and journalist
Posted on October 19, 2001 at 9:30 AM
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't.
—Mark Twain, American writer and journalist, Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar
Posted on October 2, 2001 at 11:45 AM
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
Loyalty to petrified opinions never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul in this world—and never will.
—Mark Twain, American writer and journalist, Consistency
Posted on April 9, 2002 at 7:17 AM
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.
—Mark Twain, American writer and journalist, Mark Twain's Speeches
Posted on January 15, 2002 at 9:11 PM
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
An average English word is four letters and a half. By hard, honest labor I've dug all the large words out of my vocabulary and shaved it down till the average is three and a half. . . . I never write "metropolis" for seven cents, because I can get the same money for "city." I never write "policeman," because I can get the same price for "cop." . . . I never write "valetudinarian" at all, for not even hunger and wretchedness can humble me to the point where I will do a word like that for seven cents; I wouldn't do it for fifteen.
—Mark Twain, American writer and journalist, Mark Twain Speeches
Posted on January 25, 2002 at 10:25 AM
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