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Meaning
This quote points to self-restraint as the shape of good sense. It can be taken to mean that happiness and decency come from matching desire to reality, instead of chasing more than one can use or carry. It lands in moments of overreach, when ambition starts outrunning ability and simplicity begins to look wiser than excess.
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Original Language & Translation
Originally said in English.
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About Mark Twain
American writer, humorist, and essayist
Mark Twain was the pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, an American writer, humorist, and essayist. He is best known for the novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and for a body of work that helped define American writing in the late 19th century. His books also include A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court and Pudd'nhead Wilson. He co-wrote The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today with Charles Dudley Warner. Twain's work is marked by wit, social satire, and a sharp eye for American life.
More from Mark Twain (476 quotes) →More quotes by Mark Twain
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Books by Mark Twain
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
One of his best-known novels.