“Consider well the proportion of things: it is better to be a young June bug than an old bird of paradise.”

“A few fly bites cannot stop a spirited horse.”

“The stranger's first feeling, when suddenly confronted by that towering and awful apparition wrapped in its shroud of snow, is breath-taking astonishment. It is as if heaven's gates had swung open and exposed the throne. (Twain on seeing the Jungfrau.)”

“We did not oversleep at St. Nicholas. The church-bell began to ring at four-thirty in the morning, and from the length of time it continued to ring I judged that it takes the Swiss sinner a good while to get the invitation through his head. ”

“This is Huck Finn, a child of mine of shady reputation. Be good to him for his parent's sake.”

“There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist, except an old optimist.”

“What work I have done I have done because it has been play. If it had been work I shouldn't have done it. . . . The work that is really a man's own work is play and not work at all. . . . When we talk about the great workers of the world we really mean the great players of the world.”