Celebrating Mark Twain's Birthday with His Words of Wisdom (and Humour)

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Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. Hailed as the Father of American Literature by William Faulkner, Twain is the author of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and its sequel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a "Great American Novel" because it accurately represented the United States at the time it was written.

Twain grew up in Hannibal, Missouri, which served as the setting of many of his books. When he was young, he worked as a typesetter for a magazine before he discovered he was good at writing humour (we may read The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County). Twain liked to make fun of people in the upper classes. He was the first author to use American dialect – the way Americans speak – and humour.

Twain was born on November 30, 1835 during a visit by Halley's Comet, which can be seen from Earth every 75 to 76 years. Twain predicted that he would die when Halley's Comet came back, and he was right! He died on April 21, 1910, the day after the comet returned.

To celebrate his birthday, here are some of Mark Twain's best quotes:

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"If you always tell truth, you don't have to remember anything."

"A person who won't read has no advantage over one who can't read."

"The secret of getting ahead is getting started."

"Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first."

"Always do right. This will gratify some people, and astonish the rest."

"Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please."

"Kindness is the language which the deaf can see and the blind can see."

"The best way to cheer yourself up is to try cheer somebody else up."

"Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company." 

"Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life."