Mark Twain - Inspiration Thursday

Matt on the shore of frozen Lake Yellowstone in Yellowstone National Park, May 2013

I read a book of Mark Twain quotations earlier this year. I read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer last year and Matt read Huck Finn. I've been thinking I'd needed to revisit Twain. It had been a while. When we went to a music festival at the Calvaras County Fair Grounds back in 2010 I had to pick up The Celebrated Jumping From of Clavaras County. That was probably the last time I'd picked up any Twain. Every time I have read his works I have enjoyed them very much. He has a lot of wisdom and wit wrapped up in whimsy. I like it.   I jotted down a number of lines in my diary as I read Man is the Only Animal That Blushes...or Needs To and just came across them again today. In a lot of respects he reminds me of a Kurt Vonnegeut (my favorite author) from a previous era.

Matt and me in front of steamy, erupting Grotto Geyser in Yellowstone National Park, May 2013

"The man with a new idea is a crank until the idea succeeds." 

 "Training is everything.  The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education."

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

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

"Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can read." 

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

Matt on the Ptarmigan Trail in Glacier National Park, August 2013