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Directory of Mark Twain's maxims, quotations, and various opinions:

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z


MODESTY

The man who is ostentatious of his modesty is twin to the statue that wears a fig leaf.
- Following the Equator, Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar

I was born modest; not all over, but in spots.
- A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

Without doubt modesty is nothing less than a holy feeling; and without doubt the person whose rule of modesty has been transgressed feels the same sort of wound that he would feel if something made holy to him by his religion had suffered a desecretation. I say "rule of modesty" because there are about a million rules in the world, and this makes a million standards to be looked out for.
- Following the Equator

Modesty antedates clothes and will be resumed when clothes are no more. Modesty died when clothes were born. Modesty died when false modesty was born.
- Mark Twain, a Biography

Twain graphic from Life Magazine
From LIFE magazine, May 26, 1898


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