Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.
Mark Twain, born Samuel Clemens (1835–1910), was an American writer and humourist, author of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. He took his pen name from Mississippi river slang, having worked as a steamboat pilot. Alongside the novels he wrote travel books and sharp satire on the politics and society of his day.
About this theme: Time
Time is the one theme here where every author writes from the same position — none of them had more of it than they had. Seneca devoted an essay to it, and his central claim is uncomfortable: we are not given a short life, we spend it in a way that makes it seem short.
More by Mark Twain
- When in doubt, tell the truth.
- Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear — not absence of fear.
- Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.
- Habit is habit, and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time.
- The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up.
More on Time
- Lost time is never found again.— Benjamin Franklin
- The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best time is now.— Chinese Proverb
- It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it.— Seneca
- The life given us by nature is short, but the memory of a well-spent life is eternal.— Cicero
- The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine.— Nikola Tesla