"If we would learn what the human..." - Quote by Mark Twain
If we would learn what the human race really is at bottom, we need only observe it in election times.
More by Mark Twain
“Braveness is resistance to concern, mastery of panic - not absense of anxiety.”
“When one's character begins to fall under suspicion and disfavor, how swift, then, is the work of disintegration and destruction.”
“Suppose . . . burglars had made entry into this . . . [library]. Picture them seated here on this floor, pouring the light of their dark-lanterns over some books they found, and thus absorbing moral truths and getting moral uplift. The whole course of their lives would have been changed. As it was, they kept straight on in their immoral way and were sent to jail. For all I know, they may next be sent to Congress.”
More on Politics
“All the political angst and moral melodrama about getting 'the rich' to pay 'their fair share' is part of a big charade. This is not about economics, it is about politics.”
“As to your kind wishes for myself, allow me to say I can not enter the ring on the money basis--first, because, in the main, it iswrong; and secondly, I have not, and can not get, the money. I say, in the main, the use of money is wrong; but for certain objects, in a political contest, the use of some, is both right, and indispensable.”
“A conservative is a man who is too cowardly to fight and too fat to run.”
More on Human Nature
“When malice has reason on its side, it looks forth bravely, and displays that reason in all its luster. When austerity and self-denial have not realized true happiness, and the soul returns to the dictates of nature, the reaction is fearfully extravagant.”
“Jealousy ... survives every other passion of mankind.”
“Nothing astonishes men so much as common sense and plain dealing.”