"Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul in this world – and never will."
-Mark Twain
Freedom begins with keeping an open mind.
"You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus."
-Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
It is with our eyes that we look, but only with our imagination that we see.
"The very ink with which all history is written is merely fluid prejudice."
-Mark Twain, Following the Equator
For the Texas Board of Education, America wasn't founded on the principal of the separation of church and state, every good capitalist is actually a free-market conservative, McCarthy wasn't really that bad, and Thomas Jefferson had nothing to do with inspiring revolution in 18th-century America.
And the ink dries on prejudice in Texas.
"Nothing that grieves us can be called little: by the eternal laws of proportion a child's loss of a doll and a king's loss of a crown are events of the same size."
-Mark Twain, "Which Was the Dream"
All loss is profound. Comfort is found by seeing equally in other's sorrow – and joy – a measure of our own.
“It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so"
-Mark Twain
The more tenaciously a thought is held, the more irrational it becomes. But it ain't necessarily so.
"I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, most of them never happened."
- Mark Twain
Beware the boogie man in the dark corner, for he just may not exist.
"A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval."
-Mark Twain
A man that can walk through life unburdened by the vicissitudes of others, accept his own shortcomings, and strive always to improve himself, warts and all, is an easy person to be around – for himself and others.
"A man is never more truthful than when he acknowledges himself a liar."
-Mark Twain
We are all sinners, liars, and cheats. Admitting it is the only hope we have that we'll not always be sinners, liars, and cheats.
"I would rather have my ignorance than another man's knowledge, because I have got so much more of it."
-Mark Twain
All we can be sure of is our own ignorance – knowing that we don't know. An abundance of known ignorance is better than a paucity of knowledge.
"Life does not consist mainly – or even largely – of facts and happenings. It consists mainly of the storm of thoughts that is forever blowing through one's head"
-Mark Twain
Still waters run deep. The life of the mind is life itself.
