Home > Work > Pudd'nhead Wilson
1 " Adam was but human—this explains it all. He did not want the apple for the apple's sake, he wanted it only because it was forbidden. The mistake was in not forbidding the serpent; then he would have eaten the serpent. "
― Mark Twain , Pudd'nhead Wilson
2 " There are those who scoff at the schoolboy, calling him frivolous andshallow: Yet it was the schoolboy who said 'Faith is believing what youknow ain't so'. "
3 " When ill luck begins, it does not come in sprinkles, but in showers. "
4 " I'll not go where there is any of that sort of thing going on, again. It's the sure way, and the only sure way; "
5 " Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry. "
6 " One must make allowances for a parental instinct that has been starving for twenty-five or thirty years. It is famished, it is crazed with hunger by that time, and will be entirely satisfied with anything that comes handy; its taste is atrophied, it can't tell mud cat from shad. A devil born to a young couple is measurably recognizable by them as a devil before long, but a devil adopted by an old couple is an angel to them, and remains so, through thick and thin. "
7 " A home without a cat — and a well-fed, well-petted and properly revered cat — may be a perfect home, perhaps, but how can it prove title? "
8 " October: This is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks. The others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August and February. "
9 " To all intents and purposes Roxy was as white as anybody, but the one sixteenth of her which was black outvoted the other fifteen parts and made her a Negro. She was a slave, and salable as such. "
10 " Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example. "
11 " A kindly courtesy does at least save one’s feelings, even if it is not professing to stand for a welcome. "
12 " Wilson stopped and stood silent. Inattention dies a quick and sure death when a speaker does that. "
13 " There is no character, howsoever good and fine, but it can be destroyed by ridicule, howsoever poor and witless. Observe the ass, for instance: his character is about perfect, he is the choicest spirit among all the humbler animals, yet see what ridicule has brought him to. Instead of feeling complimented when we are called an ass, we are left in doubt. "
14 " Behold, the fool saith, "Put not all thine eggs in the one basket" - which is but a matter of saying, "Scatter your money and your attention"; but the wise man saith, "Pull all your eggs in the one basket and - WATCH THAT BASKET." - Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar "
15 " The true Southern watermelon is a boon apart, and not to be mentioned with commoner things. It is chief of this world'd luxuries, king by grace of God over all the fruits of the earth. When one has tasted it, he knows what the angels eat. It was not a Southern watermelon that Eve took: we know it because she repented. "
16 " As to the adjective: when in doubt, strike it out. "
17 " All say, ‘how hard it is that we have to die’ -- a strange complaint to come from the mouths of those who have had to live. "
18 " Better to keep your mouth closed and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt. "
19 " Âdem, yalnızca bir insandı. Bu her şeyi açıklıyor. Elmayı, yemek için değil, yasak olduğu için istemişti. Asıl hata, yılanı yasaklamamış olmaktı. Çünkü o zaman onu yemek isteyecekti. "
20 " Statistics show that we lose more fools on this day than in all the other days of the year put together. This proves, by the number left in stock, that one Fourth of July per year is now inadequate, the country has grown so.- Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar "
