There was never yet an uninteresting life. Such a thing is an impossibility. Inside of the dullest exterior there is a drama, a comedy, and a tragedy.
- "The Refuge of the Derelicts"

It is the epitome of life. The first half of life consists of the capacity to enjoy without the chance; the last half consists of the chance without the capacity.
-Letter to Edward Dimmit, 19 July 1901

What is human life? The first third a good time; the rest remembering about it.
- More Maxims of Mark, Merle Johnson (1927)

...the events of life are mainly small events -- they only seem large when we are close to them. By and by they settle down and we see that one doesn't show above another. They are all about one general low altitude, and inconsequential.
- Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. 1 (2010)

... 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.
- Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. 1 (2010)

Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.
- Notebook, 1898

Such is life, and the trail of the serpent is over us all.
- The Innocents Abroad

We recognize that there are no trivial occurrences in life if we get the right focus on them.
- Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1 (2010)

Each person is born to one possession which outvalues all his others- his last breath.
- "Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar"

Don't put too much faith in the passing stranger. This life is full of uncertainties, and every episode in life, figuratively speaking is just a frog. You want to watch every exigency as you would a frog, and don't you ever bet a cent on it until you know whether it is loaded or not.
- Morals Lecture, 15 July 1895

Oh Death where is thy sting! It has none. But life has.
- Notebook, 1894

He had arrived at that point where presently the illusions would cease and he would have entered upon the realities of life, and God help the man that has arrived at that point.
- Jack Van Nostrand speech, 22 December 1905

Only he who has seen better days and lives to see better days again knows their full value.
- Notebook, 1902

When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries of life disappear and life stands explained.
- Notebook, 1898

There has never been an intelligent person of the age of sixty who would consent to live his life over again. His or anyone else's.
- Letters from the Earth

Obscurity and a competence. That is the life that is best worth living.
- Mark Twain's Notebook

Life: we laugh and laugh, then cry and cry, then feebler laugh, then die.
- Notebook, 1898; also More Maxims of Mark, Merle Johnson (1927)

Life is at best a dream and at worst a nightmare from which you cannot escape.
- Mysterious Stranger Manuscripts

It is not likely that any complete life has ever been lived which was not a failure in the secret judgment of the person who lived it. It is not likely that there has ever been a civilized person 65 years old who would consent to live his life over again.
- Mark Twain's Notebook, 1902-1903

But such is human life. Here today and gone tomorrow. A dream -- a shadow -- a ripple on the water -- a thing for invisible gods to sport with for a season and then toss idly by -- idly by. It is rough.
- "Closed Out" sketch, included in San Francisco letter to Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, 28 January 1866

Life was not a valuable gift, but death was. Life was a fever-dream made up of joys embittered by sorrows, pleasure poisoned by pain; a dream that was a nightmare-confusion of spasmodic and fleeting delights, ecstasies, exultations, happinesses, interspersed with long-drawn miseries, griefs, perils, horrors, disappointments, defeats,humiliations, and despairs--the heaviest curse devisable by divine ingenuity; but death was sweet, death was gentle, death was kind; death healed the bruised spirit and the broken heart, and gave them rest and forgetfulness; death was man's best friend; when man could endure life no longer, death came and set him free.
- Letters from the Earth

Oh, this human life, this earthy life, this weary life! It is so groveling, and so mean; its ambitions are so paltry, its prides so trivial, its vanities so childish; and the glories that it values and applauds -- lord, how empty!
- No. 44, The Mysterious Stranger

Poor old Methuselah, how did he manage to stand it so long?
- Letter to William D. Howells, 9 February 1879

Life is purgatory at all times, & a swindle & a crime -- yesterday it was hell.
- Letter to William D. Howells, 24 September 1902