The "The Man...Samuel Clemens (a.k.a. Mark Twain) Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading about a fellow known as Samuel Clements.  You may have known him as Mark Twain who was said to have had a font of quotable sayings, covering everything from the afterlife to adventure.  

Mark Twain

His quotes are not only inspiring, but funny and sometimes sarcastic.  He is best known for his humor.  It's been over a century since he died, but he remains one of the most widely quoted people.  His beloved Huckleberry Finn is one of the most misquoted folks in American history, with purported Twain-isms disputed and fact-checked on a regular basis.  The following quotes have all been attributed to Mark Twain, but not a single one was written by him.  The quotes have been credited to Mark Twain so often that the origin of each gets muddied.  Actually, Twain-isms have been disputed so often that the original origin of each is not known in many cases.  I have included 13 quotes that have been credited to Mr. Twain, but were not written by him.  I included the author in case you may want to know whom actually penned the quote.

"A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes."

– Written by satirist Jonathan Swift in 1710.

"Never let schooling interfere with your education."

– Coined by the novelist and essayist Grant Allen in 1894

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do."

– Written in the 1990 book "P.S. I Love You" by H. Jackson Brown, Jr. and credited to his mother, Sarah Frances Brown

"Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter."

– Attributed to an anonymous government researcher in 1968

"The secret of getting ahead is getting started."

– Origin unknown

"The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why."

– Anonymous

"I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time."

– Written by French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal in 1656

"When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years."

– Origin is unknown

"The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco."

– Said in some form by actor James Quinn in the 1700s

"Golf is a good walk spoiled.

– Likely originally said in some form by an unknown couple called "the Allens," friends of author H. S. Scrivener, in a conversation about lawn tennis in 1903

Why not go out on a limb? That’s where the fruit is."

– Written by journalist Frank Scully in 1950

"Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint."

– A version was credited to Berlin doctor Markus Herz in 1912

"Don't believe the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first." – Attributed to humorist Robert J. Burdette in 1883 

If you ever come upon a Mark Twain quote that you suspect might not be accurate, look it up on the website Twain Quotes.  The database was compiled by Barbara Schmidt, a 2017 Mark Twain Journal Legacy Scholar and author at the Center for Mark Twain Studies. Because, as Mark Twain didn't actually say (through the anonymous quote is often attributed to him).... "It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble, it's what you know for sure that just ain't so."  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.