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No Ordinary Life
The photographs on this page are from Missouri and Arkansas, all taken in
the Ozark Mountains.  The idea for the title of the page comes courtesy
of Mark Twain:  "There is no such thing as an ordinary life."

Since he was born in the state of Missouri, it seemed fitting to devote this
page to Mark Twain quotes; there's only one exception, which is noted.

My paternal grandfather was born in the Ozarks and, though his family
moved away when he was a child, he never forgot his boyhood home
and carried a love for the Ozark Mountains in his heart all of his life.

-- Nancy
There was never yet an uninteresting life.  Such a thing is an
impossibility.  In every life, there is drama, comedy and tragedy.
A man's character may be learned from the adjectives which
he habitually uses in conversation.
The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.
Worrying is like paying a debt you don't owe.
The secret of getting ahead is getting started.
Never be haughty to the humble; never be humble to the haughty.
The older I get, the more clearly I remember things that never happened.
They did not know it was impossible, so they did it.
It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.
It is higher and nobler to be kind.
Humor is the great thing, the saving thing.
I once sent a dozen of my friends a telegram saying, 'Flee at once,
all is discovered.'  They all left town immediately.
There are a few people I admire, but, as a whole, I don't think much of the species.
It takes your enemy and your friend, working together, to hurt you to the
heart - the one to slander you and the other to get the news to you.
Good judgement is the result of experience;
experience is the result of bad judgement.
A cabin in the Ozarks is the happiest place I know,
When the frogs begin to sing and the winds begin to blow.
When the dogwood trees are shining on the hils in robes of white,
Then my old reel gets to whining, for it's now the bluegill bite.
A cabin in the Ozarks in the summer's misty haze,
Is where I love to linger, dreaming through the quiet days.
This cabin in the Ozarks has a fireplace deep and wide,
A stewpot on the hearth, and my old dog by my side.
I can see a big wild turkey in a white oak on the hill,
Where the frosty ridge is sparkling in the moonlight, cold and still;
And I think I'll stop my wanderings, for this spot that I have found
In the blue-hazed Ozark mountains, is just right the whole year round.
-- Mary Elizabeth Mahnkey
Drag your thoughts away from your troubles - by the ears,
by the heels or any other way you can manage it.
I've lived through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.
The human race's most effective weapon is laughter.
Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness.
Truth is stranger than fiction; fiction is obliged to stick
to possibilities; truth isn't.
The more I learn about people, the more I like my dog.
It is curious that physical courage should be so common in
the world and moral courage so rare.
A clear conscience is the sure sign of a bad memory.
Never argue with a fool, onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.
The most interesting information comes from children,
they tell all they know and then stop.
It takes a thousand men to invent a telegraph, or a steam engine, or a photograph,
or a telephone or any other important thing, but the last man gets the credit and
we forget the others.  He added his little mite, that is all he did.  These object
lessons should make us modest.  But nothing can do that.
The best way to cheer yourself is to try to cheer someone else.
To us, our house was not unsentient matter, it had a heart, a soul and eyes to see
us with; and approvals and solicitudes and deep sympathies; it was of us, and we
were in its confidence, and lived in its grace and in the peace of its benediction.
If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.
Human nature appears to be just the same, all over the world.