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

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SUCCESS

Twain watching from window

It is strange the way the ignorant and inexperienced so often and so undeservedly succeed when the informed and the experienced fail.
- Auobiography of Mark Twain; Mark Twain in Eruption

Human nature is the same everywhere; it deifies success, it has nothing but scorn for defeat.
- Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc

Behold the fool saith, "Put not all thine eggs in the one basket"--which is but a manner of saying, "Scatter your money and your attention;" but the wise man saith, "Put all your eggs in the one basket and--WATCH THAT BASKET."
- Pudd'nHead Wilson

All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then Success is sure.
- Notebook, 1887

I'm not the declining sort. I would take charge of the constellations if I were asked to do it. All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then Success is sure.
- Letter to Cordelia Welsh Foote of Cincinnati, written on 2 December 1887. Reprinted in When Huck Finn Went Highbrow, Casseres

Twain at the window
Photos from the Dave Thomson collection


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