...nations have no command over their governments, & in fact no influence over them, except of a fleeting & rather ineffectual sort.
- Letter to Baroness von Suttner, 2/17/1898
The government of my country snubs honest simplicity, but fondles artistic villainy, and I think I might have developed into a very capable pickpocket if I had remained in the public service a year or two.
- Roughing It
That's the difference between governments and individuals. Governments don't care, individuals do.
- A Tramp Abroad
...no country can be well governed unless its citizens as a body keep religiously before their minds that they are the guardians of the law and that the law officers are only the machinery for its execution, nothing more.
- The Gilded Age
Samuel Clemens, the Great Mark Twain
Most people have forgotten the man born Samuel Clemens, who became the revered preacher of truth, Mark Twain. Even worse, those who have barely heard of him think of him as a backwoods bigot. Nothing could be further from the truth. So much can be learned from this outspoken, scholarly man of the world. Following, you will find a barrage of quotes, which we don't expect you to read, but we hope that you do. May all gods ever invented bless The Great Mark Twain.
