author stringclasses 8
values | book_title stringclasses 8
values | gutenberg_id int64 972 34k | year int64 1.86k 1.92k | text stringlengths 9 1.07k | char_count int64 30 1.07k | line_count int64 1 15 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER, by Mark Twain [MT#47][mtmst10.txt]3186 | 67 | 1 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | It was in 1590--winter. Austria was far away from the world, and asleep;
it was still the Middle Ages in Austria, and promised to remain so
forever. Some even set it away back centuries upon centuries and said
that by the mental and spiritual clock it was still the Age of Belief in
Austria. But they meant it as a co... | 485 | 7 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | When we were finishing our house, we found we had a little cash left
over, on account of the plumber not knowing it. | 116 | 2 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | I will explain that whenever I want a thing, and Mrs. McWilliams wants
another thing, and we decide upon the thing that Mrs. McWilliams wants--
as we always do--she calls that a compromise. | 189 | 3 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | What an ass you are!" he said. "Are you so unobservant as not to have
found out that sanity and happiness are an impossible combination? No
sane man can be happy, for to him life is real, and he sees what a
fearful thing it is. Only the mad can be happy, and not many of those.
The few that imagine themselves kings o... | 486 | 7 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | "Now there is the history of that burglar alarm--everything just as it
happened; nothing extenuated, and naught set down in malice. Yes, sir,--
and when I had slept nine years with burglars, and maintained an
expensive burglar alarm the whole time, for their protection, not mine,
and at my sole cost--for not a d---d c... | 534 | 8 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | CHRISTIAN SCIENCE, by Mark Twain [MT#48][mtcsc10.txt]3187 | 67 | 1 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | This last summer, when I was on my way back to Vienna from the Appetite-
Cure in the mountains, I fell over a cliff in the twilight, and broke
some arms and legs and one thing or another, and by good luck was found
by some peasants who had lost an ass, and they carried me to the nearest
habitation, which was one of tho... | 911 | 13 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | "I do not understand it. I believe she has not diagnosed the case with
sufficient care. Did she look like a person who was theorizing, or did
she look like one who has fallen off precipices herself and brings to the
aid of abstract science the confirmations of personal experience?"--
"Bitte?" --It was too large a con... | 572 | 9 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | Does she seem to be in full and functionable possession of her
intellectual plant, such as it is?"--"Bitte?"--"Do they let her run at
large, or do they tie her up?" | 164 | 3 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | MARK TWAIN'S SPEECHES, by Mark Twain [MT#49][mtmts10.txt]3188 | 67 | 1 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | SKETCHES NEW AND OLD, by Mark Twain [MT#50][mtsno10.txt]3189 | 67 | 1 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | 1601, by Mark Twain [MT#51][mtsxn10.txt]3190 | 67 | 1 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | But suppose a literary artist ventured to go into a painstaking and
elaborate description of one of these grisly things--the critics would
skin him alive. Well, let it go, it cannot be helped; Art retains her
privileges, Literature has lost hers. Somebody else may cipher out the
whys and the wherefores and the consis... | 355 | 5 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | Albert Bigelow Paine, Mark Twain's biographer, likewise acknowledged its
greatness, when he said, "1601 is a genuine classic, as classics of that
sort go. It is better than the gross obscenities of Rabelais, and
perhaps in some day to come, the taste that justified Gargantua and the
Decameron will give this literary r... | 493 | 7 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | Suppose Sir Walter [Scott] instead of putting the conversation into the
mouths of his characters, had allowed the characters to speak for
themselves? We should have had talk from Rebecca and Ivanhoe and the
soft lady Rowena which would embarrass a tramp in our day. However, to
the unconsciously indelicate all things ... | 334 | 5 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | GOLDSMITH'S FRIEND ABROAD AGAIN, by Twain [MT#52][mtgfa10.txt]3191 | 68 | 1 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | No experience is set down in the following letters which had to be
invented. Fancy is not needed to give variety to the history of a
Chinaman's sojourn in America. Plain fact is amply sufficient. | 197 | 3 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | DEAR CHING-FOO: It is all settled, and I am to leave my oppressed and
overburdened native land and cross the sea to that noble realm where all
are free and all equal, and none reviled or abused--America! | 203 | 3 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | But he said, wait a minute--I must be vaccinated to prevent my taking the
small-pox. I smiled and said I had already had the small-pox, as he
could see by the marks, and so I need not wait to be "vaccinated," as he
called it. But he said it was the law, and I must be vaccinated anyhow.
The doctor would never let me p... | 621 | 9 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | And I grew still more uneasy, when I found that any succored and
befriended refugee from Ireland or elsewhere could stand up before that
judge and swear, away the life or liberty or character of a refugee from
China; but that by the law of the land the Chinaman could not testify
against the Irishman. | 301 | 5 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | CURIOUS REPUBLIC OF GONDOUR, by Mark Twain [MT#53][mtcrg10.txt]3192 | 67 | 1 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | I found that the nation had at first tried universal suffrage pure and
simple, but had thrown that form aside because the result was not
satisfactory. It had seemed to deliver all power into the hands of the
ignorant and non-tax-paying classes; and of a necessity the responsible
offices were filled from these classes ... | 325 | 5 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | That last--and saddest evidence of intellectual poverty, the Pun. | 65 | 1 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | Mrs. Murphy jumped to the conclusion that it would only cost two or
three dollars to embalm her dead husband, and so she telegraphed "Yes."
It was at the "wake" that the bill for embalming arrived and was
presented to the widow. She uttered a wild, sad wail, that pierced every
heart, and said: "Sivinty-foive dollars ... | 467 | 7 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | I kind of dodged, and the boot-jack broke the looking-glass. I could
have waited to see what became of the other missiles if I had wanted to,
but I took no interest in such things. | 181 | 3 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | TWAIN'S LETTERS V1 1835-1866 by A. B. Paine[MT#54][mt1lt10.txt]3193 | 67 | 1 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | TWAIN'S LETTERS V2 1867-1875 by A. B. Paine[MT#55][mt2lt10.txt]3194 | 67 | 1 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | DEAR REDPATH,--I wish you would get me released from the lecture at
Buffalo. I mortally hate that society there, and I don't doubt they
hired me. I once gave them a packed house free of charge, and they never
even had the common politeness to thank me. They left me to shift for
myself, too, a la Bret Harte at Harvar... | 453 | 7 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | I send you No. 5 today. I have written and re-written the first half of
it three different times, yesterday and today, and at last Mrs. Clemens
says it will do. I never saw a woman so hard to please about things she
doesn't know anything about. Yours ever, MARK. | 266 | 4 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | This is the place to get a poor opinion of everybody in. There isn't one
man in Washington, in civil office, who has the brains of Anson
Burlingame--and I suppose if China had not seized and saved his great
talents to the world, this government would have discarded him when his
time was up. There are more pitiful int... | 579 | 9 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | TWAIN'S LETTERS V3 1876-1885 by A. B. Paine[MT#56][mt3lt10.txt]3195 | 67 | 1 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | It is interesting to note that in thanking Clemens for his compliment
Howells wrote: "What people cannot see is that I analyze as little as
possible; they go on talking about the analytical school, which I am
supposed to belong to, and I want to thank you for using your eyes.....
Did you ever read De Foe's 'Roxana'? I... | 521 | 8 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | Pray offer my most sincere and respectful approval to the President--is
approval the proper word? I find it is the one I most value here in the
household and seldomest get. | 173 | 3 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | In the same letter he suggests to his brother that he undertake an
absolutely truthful autobiography, a confession in which nothing is to be
withheld. He cites the value of Casanova's memories, and the confessions
of Rousseau. | 227 | 4 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | And I say this also: He that waiteth for all men to be satisfied with his
plan, let him seek eternal life, for he shall need it. | 128 | 2 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | Well-good-bye, and a short life and a merry one be yours. Poor old
Methusaleh, how did he manage to stand it so long? | 118 | 2 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | You are assisted in your damaging work by the tyrannous ways of a
village-- villagers watch each other and so make cowards of each other. | 137 | 2 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | TWAIN'S LETTERS V4 1886-1900 by A. B. Paine[MT#57][mt4lt10.txt]3196 | 67 | 1 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | And I have been an author for 20 years and an ass for 55
Argument against suicide
Conversationally being yelled at
Dead people who go through the motions of life
Die in the promptest kind of a way and no fooling around
Heroic endurance that resembles contentment
Honest men must be pretty scarce
I wonder how they can li... | 594 | 13 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | TWAIN'S LETTERS V5 1901-1906 by A. B. Paine[MT#58][mt5lt10.txt]3197 | 67 | 1 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | I have seen that iceberg thirty-four times in thirty-seven voyages; it is
always the same shape, it is always the same size, it always throws up
the same old flash when the sun strikes it; you may set it on any New
York door-step of a June morning and light it up with a mirror-flash; and
I will engage to recognize it. ... | 570 | 8 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | It vexes me to catch myself praising the clean private citizen Roosevelt,
and blaming the soiled President Roosevelt, when I know that neither
praise nor blame is due to him for any thought or word or deed of his, he
being merely a helpless and irresponsible coffee-mill ground by the hand
of God. | 297 | 5 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | It was a presidential year and the air was thick with politics. Mark
Twain was no longer actively interested in the political situation; he
was only disheartened by the hollowness and pretense of office-seeking,
and the methods of office-seekers in general. | 258 | 4 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | Shall we ever laugh again? If I could only see a dog that I knew in the
old times! and could put my arms around his neck and tell him all,
everything, and ease my heart. Think--in 3 hours it will be a week!--and
soon a month; and by and by a year. How fast our dead fly from us. | 281 | 4 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | Aldrich was here half an hour ago, like a breeze from over the fields,
with the fragrance still upon his spirit. I am tired of waiting for that
man to get old. | 160 | 3 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | When a man is a pessimist before 48 he knows too much; if he is an
optimist after it, he knows too little. | 106 | 2 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | TWAIN'S LETTERS V6 1907-1910 by A. B. Paine[MT#59][mt6lt10.txt]3198 | 67 | 1 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | That doctor had half an idea that there is something the matter with my
brain. . . Doctors do know so little and they do charge so much for
it. | 146 | 3 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | You ought not to say sarcastic things about my "fighting on the other
side." General Grant did not act like that. General Grant paid me
compliments. He bracketed me with Zenophon--it is there in his Memoirs
for anybody to read. He said if all the confederate soldiers had
followed my example and adopted my military ... | 520 | 8 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | DEAR HOWELLS,--I have to write a line, lazy as I am, to say how your Poe
article delighted me; and to say that I am in agreement with
substantially all you say about his literature. To me his prose is
unreadable--like Jane Austin's. No, there is a difference. I could read
his prose on salary, but not Jane's. Jane i... | 411 | 6 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | COMPLETE LETTERS OF MARK TWAIN, by Paine [MT#60][mtclt10.txt]3199 | 67 | 1 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | That doctor had half an idea that there is something the matter with my
brain. . . Doctors do know so little and they do charge so much for
it. | 146 | 3 |
Mark Twain | Quotations from Mark Twain | 3,432 | 1,910 | Shall we ever laugh again? If I could only see a dog that I knew in the
old times! and could put my arms around his neck and tell him all,
everything, and ease my heart. Think--in 3 hours it will be a week!--and
soon a month; and by and by a year. | 250 | 4 |
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