Quotes Library

December 4, 2025

Reader, suppose you were an idiot; and suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat myself.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (“Mark Twain”) (1835–1910), American writer, in Des MacHale, Wit (1997), p.198

Assuming you are an elected politician, do any of your colleagues qualify as idiots? Assuming you are a wannabe, does Twain induce second thoughts? How do you propose to demonstrate you are not an idiot, once elected?

The attention paid in today’s media (both traditional and social) to what in years past would have been obscure members of Congress allows many more people to see the truth in Twain’s statement.


More Quotes

June 9, 2025
01:06
In America everybody is of the opinion that he has no social superiors
February 14, 2025
Whatever else may be shaken, there are some facts established beyond warring; for virtue is better than vice
July 18, 2025
I pay my tax bills more readily than any others—for whether the money is well or ill spent
Page 24 of 123