Here are the 33 best handpicked quotes from “The Prince and the Pauper” by Mark Twain:
From quotes by Tom Canty to quotes by Lord Hertford to quotes by The Ruffler.
So if you want the best quotes from “The Prince and the Pauper” sorted by figure, then you’re in the right place.
Let’s jump right in!
My Favorite “The Prince and the Pauper” Quote
#1
“What God wills, will happen; thou canst not hurry it, thou canst not alter it; therefore wait, and be patient.”
— Miles Hendon
I was in my teens when I first encountered the word “Maktub,” which is an Arabic word for “it is written” or “it is destined.”
Truly, there are times in our lives where the only thing left for us to do is to surrender to the will of the divine or the universe because none of our actions can alter what is already written for us.
Sometimes, accepting that there are things beyond our control instead of going against the current helps us find peace within us and strengthen our faith to trust things as they unfold according to the plans of the divine.
2 Quotes by Tom Canty
#2
“Loose him and forbear!”
— Tom Canty
#3
“‘Then shall the king’s law be law of mercy from this day, and never more be law of blood! Up from thy knees and away! To the Tower and say the king decrees the duke of Norfolk shall not die!’ The words were caught up and carried eagerly from lip to lip far and wide over the hall, and as Hertford hurried from the presence, another prodigious shout burst forth— ‘The reign of blood is ended! Long live Edward, King of England!‘”
— Tom Canty
2 Quotes by Edward Tudor
#4
“When I am king they shall not have bread and shelter only, but also teachings out of books, for a full belly is little worth where the mind is starved.”
— Edward Tudor
#5
“I am not in the humor for it.”
— Edward Tudor
4 Quotes by King Henry VIII
#6
“When I am come to mine own again, I will always honor little children, remembering how that these trusted me and believed me in my time of trouble; whilst they that were older, and thought themselves wiser, mocked at me and held me for a liar.”
— King Henry VIII
#7
“That which I have seen, in that little moment, will never go out from my memory, but will abide there; and I shall see it all the days, and dream of it all the nights, till I die. Would God I had been blind!”
— King Henry VIII
#8
“He is mad; but he is my son, and England’s heir; and, mad or sane, still shall reign!”
— King Henry VIII
#9
“Kings cannot ennoble thee, thou good, great soul, for One who is higher than kings hath done that for thee; but a king can confirm thy nobility to men.”
— King Henry VIII
1 Quote by Lord Hertford
#10
“Now were he impostor and called himself prince, look you that would be natural; that would be reasonable. But lived ever an impostor yet, who, being called prince by the king, prince by the court, prince by all, denied his dignity and pleaded against his exaltation? No! By the soul of St. Swithin, no! This is the true prince, gone mad.”
— Lord Hertford
1 Quote by Miles Hendon
#11
“The world is made wrong; kings should go to school to their own laws, at times, and so learn mercy.”
— Miles Hendon
1 Quote by The Ruffler
#12
“Five and twenty sturdy budges, bulks, files, clapperdogeons and maunders, counting the dells and doxies and other morts. Most are here, the rest are wandering eastward, along the winter lay. We follow at dawn.”
— The Ruffler
21 Quotes by No Specific Figure
#13
“And when he awoke in the morning and looked upon the wretchedness about him, his dream had had its usual effect: it had intensified the sordidness of his surroundings a thousandfold.”
— The Prince and the Pauper
#14
“Learning softeneth the heart and breedeth gentleness and charity.”
— The Prince and the Pauper
#15
“What dost thou know of suffering and oppression? I and my people know, but not thou.”
— The Prince and the Pauper
#16
“But hunger is pride’s master.”
— The Prince and the Pauper
#17
“He lay down upon a sumptuous divan, and proceeded to instruct himself with honest zeal.”
— The Prince and the Pauper
#18
“It does us all good to unbend sometimes.”
— The Prince and the Pauper
#19
“’Their garment? Have they but one?’
‘Ah, good your Worship, what would they do with more? Truly they have not two bodies each.’”
— The Prince and the Pauper
#20
“By and by Tom’s reading wrought such a strong effect upon him that he began to act the prince, unconsciously. His speech and manners became curiously ceremonious and courtly, to the vast admiration and amusement of his intimates. But Tom’s influence among these young people began to grow, now, day by day; and in time he came to be looked up to, by them, with a sort of wondering awe, as a superior being.”
— The Prince and the Pauper
#21
“Explosive and was expected to blow him up.”
— The Prince and the Pauper
#22
“Yes, King Edward VI lived only a few years, poor boy, but he lived them worthily.”
— The Prince and the Pauper
#23
“Yet little Tom was not unhappy. He had a hard time of it but did not know it. It was the sort of time that all the Offal Court boys had, therefore he supposed it was the correct and comfortable thing.”
— The Prince and the Pauper
#24
“The law roasted her to death at a slow fire.”
— The Prince and the Pauper
#25
“Foo-foo the First, King of the Mooncalves!”
— The Prince and the Pauper
#26
“Let us change the tense for convenience.”
— The Prince and the Pauper
#27
“But when weariness finally forced him to be silent, he was no longer of use to his tormentors, and they sought amusement elsewhere.”
— The Prince and the Pauper
#28
“It may be history, it may be only a legend, a tradition. It may have happened, it may not have happened: but it could have happened. It may be that the wise and the learned believed it in the old days; it maybe that only the unlearned and the simple loved it and credited it.”
— The Prince and the Pauper
#29
“In the ancient city of London, on a certain autumn day in the second quarter of the sixteenth century, a boy was born to a poor family of the name of Canty, who did not want him. On the same day another English child was born to a rich family of the name of Tudor, who did want him.”
— The Prince and the Pauper
#30
“Death—and a violent death—for these poor unfortunates! The thought wrung Tom’s heart-strings. The spirit of compassion took control of him, to the exclusion of all other considerations; he never thought of the offended laws, or of the grief or loss which these three criminals had inflicted upon their victims, he could think of nothing but the scaffold and the grisly fate hanging over the heads of the condemned. His concern made him even forget, for the moment, that he was but the false shadow of a king, not the substance.”
— The Prince and the Pauper
#31
“In a moment all the heavy sorrow and misery which sleep had banished were upon him again, and he realized that he was no longer a petted prince in a palace, with the adoring eyes of a nation upon him, but a pauper, an outcast, clothed in rags, prisoner in a den fit only for beasts, and consorting with beggars and thieves.”
— The Prince and the Pauper
#32
“To the rest of the world the name of Henry VIII brought a shiver, and suggested an ogre whose nostrils breathed destruction and whose hand dealt scourgings and death; but to this boy the name brought only sensations of pleasure, the figure it invoked wore a countenance that was all gentleness and affection. He called to mind a long succession of loving passages between his father and himself, and dwelt fondly upon them, his unstinted tears attesting how deep and real was the grief that possessed his heart.”
— The Prince and the Pauper
#33
“Tom got up hungry, and sauntered hungry away, but with his thoughts busy with the shadowy splendors of his night’s dream.”
— The Prince and the Pauper