Born in Florida, Missouri before being raised in the city of Hannibal in the same state, Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his pen name -- Mark Twain -- broke into the American Literary scene in 1873 with his first novel "The Gilded Age: A Tale Today", which he collaborated on with his friend, and essayist, Charles Dudley Warner.
However, it was his magnum opus "Huckleberry Finn", circulated eleven years later that propelled Twain to the heights of immortal renown. Examining, and dissecting Southern Antebellum Society through satire, coupled with a candid, but relentless wit the novelist would become trademarked for, "Huckleberry Finn" is regarded by critics, and scholars as "The Great American Novel", and one of the finest pieces of literature to make its way from imagination, into the cannon of the English Language. Without further ado, here are six of the wittiest, incisive lines delivered by one of the finest writers, and humorists to ever walk this earth, and along with Henry James, one of the fathers of American Literature:
1. "Wrinkles should merely indicate where the smiles have been."
Age should not determine whether one can be happy, it should stand as testament that one has been, and can continue to be.
2. "The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read."
Like art, literacy is a craft honed through practice and time. Should you refuse to put in the time to practice, you are no further along the way then one who has yet to read, or one who cannot.
3. "A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes."
Words unhindered by honesty or verity of any form travel faster between mouth and ears than what can only be pronounced beneath the weight of facts.
4. "I have never let my schooling interfere with my education."
To be well educated is why we go to school but school isn't always why we are well educated.
5. "Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind it doesn't matter."
Who cares how old you are, you're only old if you care.
6. "Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see."
There is always something we can't see, something we can't hear, or can't feel but kindness is always felt. Regardless of whether we can hear, or see it.
Although the passage of time and many ages that have grown old enough to pass have long since called upon Twain to the same. The memory of the laughter and joy he once brought to so many -- captured in the pages of his books that remain impregnable, and only endure all the more with the shift of the second hand on the clock -- remains to fill us with a joy we can remember, and the laughter that comes with being able to do so.
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