Mark Twain Quotes About Virtue

• There are those who would misteach us that to stick in a rut is consistency - and a virtue, and that to climb out of the rut is inconsistency - and a vice.

  Mark Twain

  Life, Leadership, Consistency

  Mark Twain (1992). “Twain: Collected Tales, Sketches, Speeches, and Essays, Volume 1: 1852-1890”, p.1192, Library of America

• Be virtuous and you will be eccentric.

  Mark Twain

  Eccentric, Virtue, Virtuous

  A Curious Dream (1872) "Mental Photographs"

• The weakest of all weak things is a virtue that has not been tested in the fire.

  Mark Twain

  Art, Fire, Virtue

  Mark Twain (2012). “Mark Twain at Your Fingertips: A Book of Quotations”, p.496, Courier Corporation

• A crime persevered in a thousand centuries ceases to be a crime, and becomes a virtue. This is the law of custom, and custom supersedes all other forms of law.

  Mark Twain

  Funny, Humor, Law

  Mark Twain (2012). “Mark Twain at Your Fingertips: A Book of Quotations”, p.230, Courier Corporation

• I will now claim - until dispossesed - that I was the first person in the world to apply the typewriter to literature. ... The early machine was full of caprices, full of defects- devilish ones. It had as many immoralities as the machine of today has virtues. After a year or two I found that it was degrading my character, so I thought I would give it to Howells. ... He took it home to Boston, and my morals began to improve, but his have never recovered.

  Mark Twain

  Character, Home, Two

• I am trying to get the hang of this new fangled writing machine, but I am not making a shining success of it. However, this is the first attempt I have ever made & yet I perceive I shall soon & easily acquire a fine facility in its use. ... The machine has several virtues. I believe it will print faster than I can write. One may lean back in his chair & work it. It piles an awful stack of words on one page. It don't muss things or scatter ink blots around. Of course it saves paper.

  Mark Twain

  Believe, Writing, Typewriters

• The lie, as a virtue, a principle, is eternal; the lie, as a recreation, a solace, a refuge in time of need, the fourth Grace, the tenth Muse, man's best and surest friend is immortal

  Mark Twain

  Lying, Men, Grace

  Mark Twain (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Mark Twain (Illustrated)”, p.2655, Delphi Classics

• The machine has several virtues... One may lean back in his chair and work it. It piles an awful stack of words on one page. It don't muss things or scatter ink blots around.

  Mark Twain

  Ink, Machines, May

• None of us can have as many virtues as the fountain-pen, or half its cussedness; but we can try.

  Mark Twain

  Trying, Half, Virtue

  Mark Twain (2012). “Mark Twain at Your Fingertips: A Book of Quotations”, p.496, Courier Corporation

• Virtue has never been as respectable as money.

  Mark Twain

  Money, Virtue, Respectable

  Mark Twain (1869). “The Innocents Abroad: or, The New Pilgrims' Progress”, p.589

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