10 December: Mark Twain

To celebrate the anniversary of the publication of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn on this date in 1884, here are ten quotes from its author, Mark Twain.

1. The secret of getting ahead is getting started.
2. To succeed in life, you need two things: ignorance and confidence.
3. You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.
4. Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.
5. There are basically two types of people. People who accomplish things, and people who claim to have accomplished things. The first group is less crowded.
6. 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.
7. But who prays for Satan? Who, in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most?
8. It's no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense.
9. Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.
10. Man is the only animal that blushes - or needs to.