Mark Twain
Traced to source
6 quotes we’ve traced to Mark Twain
“Never put off till tomorrow what may be done day after tomorrow just as well”
Verified“Golf is a good walk spoiled”
Disputed“History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes”
Disputed“If voting made any difference, they wouldn't let us do it”
Disputed“If you don't read the newspaper, you are uninformed. If you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed”
Disputed“When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years”
DisputedNot actually Mark Twain
Often misattributed to Mark Twain
Famous lines widely pinned on Mark Twain that we’ve traced to someone else.
“I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time”
actually Blaise Pascal
“It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog”
actually Arthur G. Lewis
“The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco”
actually Unknown — an evolving anonymous joke (ancestor: James Quin)
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover”
actually H. Jackson Brown Jr.
On the research bench
Commonly pinned on Mark Twain — under review
3 lines flagged as pinned on Mark Twain and queued for a full source trace — not yet verified.
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