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The Wit and Wisdom of Mark Twain: A Book of Quotations (Dover Thrift Editions) | 
| Author: Mark Twain
Publisher: Dover Publications
Category: Book
Buy New: $2.50
Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 4394
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 64
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.1
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5 x 0.2
ISBN: 0486406644
Dewey Decimal Number: 818.409
EAN: 9780486406640
Publication Date: December 23, 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
Includes hundreds of Twain's most memorable quips and comments on life, love, history, culture, travel, and diverse other topics, among them "He is now fast rising from affluence to poverty"; "Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please"; and "More than one cigar at a time is excessive smoking."
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| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
Great collection of clever quotes about all aspects of life. January 23, 2005
38 out of 38 found this review helpful
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, the author of such books as "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" among others, was a highly intelligent and incredibly witty man. His keen observations of the world, and the often satirical commentary he made on it, are a delight to read, and this book pulls together some real gems from many of his books, speeches, and personal notebooks. There are some 358 quotations included, divided into categories as follows: (1) on men, women, children, and human nature, (2) on love, marriage, and romance, (3) on virtue, vice, and conduct, (4) on politics and history, (5) on religion, (6) on youth and aging, (7) on truth, honesty, lies, and illusion, (8) on reading, writing, and education, (9) on health and exercise, (10) on money and business, (11) on travel, and (12) on various other subjects. Each quote is attributed to its source for easy reference. This is a very slim and very affordable little volume, only fifty-five pages in length, and in fact my only criticism is that it doesn't include more material. But it is still well worth getting, and at this price it won't break any pocketbooks.
Here is a small selection of what you can expect:
"Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence in society" (pg. 3).
"Familiarity breeds contempt -- and children" (pg. 7).
"It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not deserve them" (pg. 15).
"Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself" (pg. 23).
"Heaven for climate, Hell for company" (pg. 28).
"When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years" (pg. 28).
 a recommended collection.... May 27, 2000
12 out of 17 found this review helpful
...of spicy quotations by the master of words and wit. Gives sources too. Very enjoyable reading.
Funny and wise July 5, 2005
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
Mark Twain was one of the funniest human beings that ever visited this planet. He was also a very decent one . He was skeptically wise and had the ability to a sentence or two put the most pretentious of all creatures , the human one, in its place.
This is the man who upon the premature publication of an obituary about him, replied " The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated".
One special reason I have a particular love for his work, is the fact that he of all the great writers, showed the most sympathy and insight into the life and situation of the Jews.
He is one of the few writers who it seems to me never has to try to be funny, because he simply is.
This collection of some of his most famous quips and remarks is a real treat.
A good little quote book December 28, 2005
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
I have always been a fan of Mark Twain since I first read Huck Finn.
This is a great little book his quotations from his writings and speeches.
It's a nice little stocking stuffer as the book is small.
Some of my favorites:
"Classic." A book which people praise and don't read.
Honesty is the best policy--when there is money in it.
Some people like when they tell the truth. I tell the truth lying.
In God We Trust. I don't belive it would sound any better if it were true.
Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.
Martyrdom covers a multitude of sins.
When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries of life disappear and life stands explained.
Tidy collection November 27, 2005
7 out of 11 found this review helpful
Mr. Mark Twain has done a considerable amount of writing about stuff and such and so it doesn't much surprise a body to see that some publishing people have come out with a book about his "wit and wisdom." I don't see any harm in it, considering that he is long dead and gone and all, and so there is no danger that it might go to his head.
Anyway, this book is a small one, for which I am thankful, not being a great reader of books and such. All the words of wit and wisdom are arranged in an agreeable manner what with headings like "Religion," and "Politics, History" and "Travel" and so on to keep things tidy. And the quotations from the many books that Mr. Mark Twain made are kept short and more or less to the point. And it is written down after everyone of them where the editor, whose name is Paul Negri, found them, which I guess is helpful for some people who want to look them up and read them again or to check and see if Paul Negri got them right.
I reckon he did since it sure looks like he got all the spelling right, although I couldn't say for sure not being a real top notch speller myself. All and all and taken all around, I think this little book does a body proud. I know I felt real good seeing as how myself is quoted in two or three places, and as far as memory serves, I do believe that Mr. Paul Negri got what I said right, although I'm not sure he really picked the best stuff. I mean, I said a lot more than any body could really bear in that long book by Mr. Mark Twain about my so-called "adventures" down the Mississippi with Jim and all that happened. He quotes me as saying that all men are cowards, and I guess that's pretty much the truth, if you look at it deep enough. But heck, that ain't really no big bit of wisdom. Any plum fool could see that considering how people are scared to death of people like kings and such and the Widow Douglas and how the best thing a body can do is just get away from ornery people and truant officers and such.
Not that I like to criticize, cause I ain't much good at it compared to Aunt Polly and Miss Watson and Mr. Mark Twain hisself.
Some of what he writes is pretty funny, like "Familiarity breeds contempt--and children." You gotta really like the use of the dash in that line, don't you? It kinda breaks up the flow of the idea and surprises a body reading it. It's just like when Mr. Mark Twain was on the stage giving all those lectures and talks and such. He just liked to make people laugh, especially if he could get them to laughing at themselves.
Some of these so called witticisms and wisdoms kinda leave a body to wondering what the tarnation old Sammy Clemens (which is his real name, don't you know) had in mind. For instance I don't see the meaning in this line, much less any wit and wisdom in it: "Nothing is so ignorant as a man's left hand, except a lady's watch." I'll be hogtied and sent to Sunday school if I can figure out whether he means a lady's watch on her blouse or a lady's watch in her eyes. And by the way my left hand's about as smart as my right, and I know tell of a few lefties who could tell Mr. Samuel Langhorne Clemens that if either of their hands was dumb, it would be the right one.
But some of this is right smart and makes for some pretty good reading, if a body has such a hankering. For example when I said that "Conscience takes up more room than all the rest of a person's insides" I must say in all modesty that I pretty much knew what I was talking about. But of course this refers only to such people that have done something they need to feel bad about. As Mr. Mark Twain says, "Man is the only animal who blushes. Or needs to."
I analyzed this here book a bit not having a lot else to do, and I can say that Mr. Mark Twain's main technique is to put one thing up against another, close by--the first having quite a real distance from the second, thereby making a body wonder and then have to laugh at such a joining up. Take this for instance: "Do your duty today and repent tomorrow." Now I gotta admit that I sure do cotton up to that juxtaposition, if you wanna call it that. It reminds me of something that Mr. Clemens did not say: "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." Doing too much good wearies a soul.
I also couldn't help but notice in my analyzing that Mr. Mark Twain is in no danger of going to the Good Place hisself and that may account for the fact that he is so darn awful cynical, if you understand my meaning.
I do have one criticism of this book. It is that Pudd'nhead Wilson seems to have more to say than I do, and considering that I said a lot more than he did in a book that is a lot longer, I just wonder if Mr. Paul Negri is supposing that Pudd'nhead (who wasn't named Pudd'nhead because he was all that full of wit and wisdom) is better at dispensing such than I am.
Be that as it may, this is, as I said before, a short and easy read and therefore I recommend it.
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