Mark Twain Gentle Quotations

A gentleman is someone who knows how to play the banjo and doesn't.

I think a compliment ought to always precede a complaint, where one is possible, because it softens resentment and insures for the complaint a courteous and gentle reception.

A gentleman is a man who can play the banjo, but doesn't.

Learning softeneth the heart and breedeth gentleness and charity.

My first American ancestor, gentlemen, was an Indian-an early Indian. Your ancestors skinned him alive, and I am an orphan. All those Salem witches were ancestors of mine. Your people made it tropical for them. . . . The first slave brought into New England out of Africa was an ancestor of mine-for I am a mixed breed, an infinitely shaded and exquisite Mongrel.

It is a good and gentle religion, but inconvenient.

No real gentleman will tell the naked truth in the presence of ladies.