July 29, 2008
- On Ribbons on Your Chest and Letters Around Your Name
“It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not deserve them.”-Mark Twain
Honor is a thing that eventually reveals itself – one way or the other. (…)
July 4, 2008
- On How, For the Good of the Country, One July 4th per Year Isn't Enough
“Statistics show that we lose more fools on this day than in all the other days of the year put together. (…)
July 2, 2008
- On the True Genius of Hard Work
“…genius itself succeeds only by arduous self-training…to play on the fiddle it is not merely necessary to take a bow and fiddle with it.”
-Mark Twain, “Contributors Club”, Atlantic, January 1877
Genius without repeated and practiced execution is only conceit.
June 20, 2008
- On Maintaining Perspective
“Now you begin to see, don't you, that distance ain't the thing to judge by, at all; it's the time it takes to go the distance in that counts….It's a matter of proportion, that's what it is; and when you come to gauge a thing's speed by its size, where's your bird and your man and your railroad alongside of a flea?….A flea is just a comet, b'iled down small.”
-Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer Abroad
In all things, greatness. (…)
May 14, 2008
- On Remaining Curious
“If there wasn't anything to find out, it would be dull. (…)
May 6, 2008
- On Truth and the Public Trust
When an honest writer discovers an imposition it is his simple duty to strip it bare and hurl it down from its place of honor, no matter who suffers by it; any other course would render him unworthy of the public confidence.-Mark Twain, A Tramp Abroad
The writer is best when he is the impostor's worst enemy. (…)
April 27, 2008
- On Elections, Politics, and Human Nature
“If we would learn what the human race really is at bottom, we need only observe it in election times.”-Mark Twain, Autobiography
Elections reflect the highest ideals of society, executed by the lowest means of human nature. (…)
April 22, 2008
- On Justice - Sweet and Terrible
”The rain …falls upon the just and the unjust alike; a thing which would not happen if I were superintending the rain's affairs. (…)
April 15, 2008
- On Honesty and the Tax Man
“There isn't a rich man in your vast city who doesn't perjure himself every year before the tax board.”-Mark Twain
Many a tall tale will be told today. (…)
March 31, 2008
- On War and Its Endless Justifications
“We build a fire in a powder magazine, then double the fire department to put it out. (…)
March 26, 2008
- On Being a True Gentleman
“If any man has just merciful and kindly instincts he would be a gentleman, for he would need nothing else in the world.”-Mark Twain, Layman’s Sermon
A gentleman gives to the world more than he takes, and thinks nothing of it. (…)
March 19, 2008
- On Statistics and Their Value
“People commonly use statistics like a drunk uses a lamp post; for support rather than illumination.”– Mark Twain (attributed)
95% of those polled think I’m a genius. (…)
March 12, 2008
- On Governors, Morals, and Ladies of the Night
“Morals consist of political morals, commercial morals, ecclesiastical morals, and morals.”-Mark Twain
Strangely, it is not unique. (…)
February 8, 2008
- On the 60th Parallel and the Center of the Universe
“There isn’t a Parallel of latitude but thinks it would have been the Equator if it had had its rights.”-Mark Twain, Following the Equator
The center of the world, that’s what the equator thinks of itself. (…)
February 4, 2008
- On Accepting Compliments and Liking It
“I do not make any pretense that I dislike compliments. The stronger the better and I can manage to digest them.”-Mark Twain, speech, “The Last Lotos Club”
Do go on. (…)
February 2, 2008
- On Party and Patriotism
“No party holds the privilege of dictating to me how I shall vote. If loyalty to party is a form of patriotism, I am no patriot. (…)
January 22, 2008
- On Improving Man
"If man could be crossed with the cat, it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat." -Mark Twain
Besides, the cat would have none of it. (…)
January 15, 2008
- On Why Writing (Well) is Hard Work
“The time to begin writing an article is when you have finished it to your satisfaction. (…)
January 9, 2008
- On Learning the Hard Way - and Well
“A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.”-Mark Twain
A lesson hard won – such as holding the cat by its tail – need only be learned once, but it is surely learned well. (…)
January 2, 2008
- On New Years Resolutions
“Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual. (…)
