Mark Twain
(page 6)
A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining, but wants it back the minute it begins to rain.
An Englishman is a person who does things because they have been done before. An American is a person who does things because they haven't been done before.
Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone you may still exist, but you have ceased to live.
Habit is habit and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time.
Humor is the great thing, the saving thing. The minute it crops up, all our irritations and resentments slip away and a sunny spirit takes their place.
I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him.
In Paris they simply stared when I spoke to them in French; I never did succeed in making those idiots understand their language.