“There are basically two types of people. People who accomplish things, and people who claim to have accomplished things. The first group is less crowded.”
-Mark Twain
When you’re truly busy getting things done, you usually don’t have a lot of time to talk about it.
Image credit: Thomas Hawk, courtesy flickr
“What a good thing Adam had- when he said a good thing he knew nobody had said it first.”
-Mark Twain
Whatever it is you’re thinking of doing, whatever bright idea you think you have, its already been done and its already been thought of. Being first is over with Adam.
Find a way to do what’s been done, or think what’s been thunk, your own way. That’s where the magic lies.
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“To get the right word in the right place is a rare achievement. To condense the diffused light of a page of thought into the luminous flash of a single sentence, is worthy to rank as a prize composition just by itself…
Anybody can have ideas–the difficulty is to express them without squandering a quire of paper on an idea that ought to be reduced to one glittering paragraph.”
-Mark Twain
An idea is like a sculpture. It takes form and meaning as you chip away at all that isn’t needed.
“If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.”
-Mark Twain
The best cure of a failing memory is simply to remember to tell the truth.
“A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval”
-Mark Twain
Self acceptance: Being comfortable in your own skin. All else risks a crisis of existential proportions.
Image credit: Nick Kenrick, courtesy flickr
“Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail. What you gain at one end you lose at the other. It’s like feeding a dog on his own tail. It won’t fatten the dog.”
-Mark Twain
Allowing schools to slowly wither through lack of funding only means money will be spent later building a jail – social institutions are funded by the public’s priorities. We should consider the implications of what it means when we build a school versus when we build a jail.
More fully supporting one will diminish the other.
Image credit: Todd Petrie, courtesy flickr
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“We chase phantoms half the days of our lives. It is well if we learn wisdom even then, and save the other half.” – Mark Twain
There comes a time in one’s life where he may question, finally, all the distractions of youth that have taken so much time and energy, and see them for what they are: nameless, faceless phantoms of fear and want , without merit or purpose.
Even then, after one has given over half a life to such imaginary phantoms and ghosts, it is worthwhile to to finally see what is important, and then to pursue only that.
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“Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society”
-Mark Twain
One should refrain, as much as possible, from judging a book merely by its cover. But it is also best when a book has a clean, well-made cover.
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“Education: that which reveals to the wise, and conceals from the stupid, the vast limits of their knowledge.”
-Mark Twain
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Humor is the great thing, the saving thing. The minute it crops up, all our irritations and resentments slip away and a sunny spirit takes their place.
-Mark Twain
A person harboring resentment or fear is best served by finding their sense of humor.