I grew up reading Shakespeare and Mark Twain.
quote by Jackson Browne
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The best cure for Christianity is reading the Bible.
quote by Mark Twain
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Shakespeare, Dickens, Mark Twain, and so many others were my dearest friends and greatest teachers.
quote by Lloyd Alexander
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.
quote by Mark Twain
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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I cannot call to mind a single instance where I have ever been irreverent, except toward the things which were sacred to other people.
Mark Twain in Is Shakespeare Dead?
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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I was sorry to have my name mentioned as one of the great authors, because they have a sad habit of dying off. Chaucer is dead, Spencer is dead, so is Milton, so is Shakespeare, and I’m not feeling so well myself.
Mark Twain in “Statistics” speech (1899)
Submitted by Mario
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Bob Hope, like Mark Twain, had a sense of humor that was uniquely American, and like Twain, we'll likely not see another like him.
quote by Dick Van Dyke
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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But really, it was reading that led me to writing. And in particular, reading the American classics like Twain who taught me at an early age that ordinary lives of ordinary people can be made into high art.
quote by Russell Banks
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Jabed Meeker, Humorist
Twain? Oh, yes, I’ve heard Mark Twain
Heard him down to Pleasant Plain;
Funny? Yes, I guess so. Folks
Seemed to laugh loud at his jokes—
Laughed to beat the band; but I
Couldn’t rightly make out why.
Guess his humor ain’t refined.
Quite enough to suit my mind.
Mark’s all right—right clever speaker—
But he can’t touch Jabed Meeker;
And one thing that makes it queer
Is that Jabed lives right here.
You ain’t met him? Son, you’ve missed
The most funniest humorist
I’ve met with in my born days—
Funniest talker, anyways,
When it comes to repartee—
That’s the humor catches me!
Like a specimen? Huh! Well,
Take, for instance, his umbrell;
Wouldn’t think, until he spoke,
He could turn that to a joke;
Mark Twain couldn’t, bet you that!
That’s where Meeker beats Mark flat!
Just imagine three or four
Fellers in Jim Beemer’s store—
‘Long comes Meeker, and some feller
Says, 'See Meeker’s bum umbreller.'
Quick as lightning Meeker ‘d yell:
'Don’t you guy my bumberell!
Where’s the feller dares to hoot
At this sping-spang bumbershoot?
Show me some one dares to call
Bad names at my bumbersoll!'
Right like that! Right off the reel!
Say, you’d ought to heard us squeal!
Then, before we’d got our breath,
Meeker, solemn sad as death,
Says: 'Stand up there ‘gainst that wall,
Para-bumber-shooter-soll!'
Twain? All right! But just give me
Some one slick at repartee!
poem by Ellis Parker Butler
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Emily Dickinson Is Not Borges
EMILY DICKINSON IS NOT BORGES
Emily Dickinson is not Borges
And Borges is not Kafka
And Kafka is not Dickens
And no one is Shakespeare-
Each one is only one self
Except for those who are many selves
And those who are many selves
Do not know
Who they themselves are-
Lear is not Falstaff
And Falstaff is not Hamlet
And Hamlet is not Shakespeare
And Shakespeare is not Donne-
No one is anyone but themselves
And even those who are really ‘someone'
Are not all the others who also are-
And we who are nothing at all?
What are we?
We are not nothing at all.
We are not great
And no one will remember our names
But we are still here now
Reading Borges and Dickenson and Kafka and Shakespeare
And wondering how and why
There are those in a world of their own
With names of their own
They themselves will never completely know.
poem by Shalom Freedman
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It's an intuitive exercise to do a Shakespeare play and to go through a Shakespeare play.
quote by Mark Rylance
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Stifle not the reader
Reading is an art,
reading is a tool.
Those who think it dumb,
must be such a fool.
Reading is enjoyment,
reading is a blast.
Reading is a separate entity
from the future and the past.
Reading is done in present,
though written in a tense.
Reading is about life,
in surprise or suspense.
Reading is a place of joy,
full of hope and song,
Reading is a place I feel
that I truly do belong.
A trapdoor to a fantasy,
A world thought lost to us,
Reading is a place of wonder,
a place that we can trust.
Why read about reality,
when I can delve into magic.
Why stifle my own happiness,
with scenarios so tragic.
Stifle not the reader,
for it is their choice alone.
Reading is an outlet,
for hearts that turned to stone.
Player Queen: Sleep rock thy brain,
And never come mischance between us twain!
line from Hamlet, Act III, Scene 2 by William Shakespeare (1599)
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
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When you cannot get a compliment any other way pay yourself one.
quote by Mark Twain
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so.
quote by Mark Twain
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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All right, then, I'll go to hell.
quote by Mark Twain
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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It's not that I'm afraid to die, I just don't want to be there when it happens.
quote by Mark Twain
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Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please.
quote by Mark Twain
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Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.
quote by Mark Twain
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The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don't want, drink what you don't like, and do what you'd rather not.
quote by Mark Twain
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Sometimes too much to drink is barely enough.
quote by Mark Twain
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