Mark Twain on Mind
1835–1910 United States
← All quotes by Mark Twain
5 quotes
Loyalty to petrified opinions never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul in this world — and never will.
The rule is perfect: in all matters of opinion our adversaries are insane.
Christian Science (1907)
Is not this insanity plea becoming rather common? Is it not so common that the reader confidently expects to see it offered in every criminal case that comes before the courts? [...] Really, what we want now, is not laws against crime, but a law against insanity.
A New Crime (1870)
When even the brightest mind in our world has been trained up from childhood in a superstition of any kind, it will never be possible for that mind, in its maturity, to examine sincerely, dispassionately, and conscientiously any evidence or any circumstance which shall seem to cast a doubt upon the validity of that superstition. I doubt if I could do it myself.
Is Shakespeare Dead? (1909)
There is no God, no universe, no human race, no earthly life, no heaven, no hell. It is all a Dream, a grotesque and foolish dream. Nothing exists but you. And You are but a Thought — a vagrant Thought, a useless Thought, a homeless Thought, wandering forlorn among the empty eternities.
The Mysterious Stranger (1916)