Welcome to the world of Huckleberry Finn, a classic American novel by Mark Twain. It has been beloved by generations of readers for its humor, warmth, and insight into human nature. Here you will find some of the best quotes from the novel, which capture the essence of Twain‘s writing and the timelessness of the story. Enjoy exploring the wit and wisdom of Huckleberry Finn Quotes!
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Quotes
🟣“All kings is mostly rapscallions, as fur as I can make out.”
🟣“All right, then, I’ll go to hell.”
🟣“Hain’t we got all the fools in town on our side? And hain’t that a big enough majority in any town?”
🟣“Having faith is believing in something you just know ain’t true.”
🟣“Human beings can be awful cruel to one another.”
🟣“I couldn’t bear to think about it; and yet, somehow, I couldn’t think about nothing else.”
🟣“I do not wish any reward but to know I have done the right thing.”
🟣“I don’t want no better book than what your face is.”
🟣“I felt so lonesome I most wished I was dead. The stars were shining, and the leaves rustled in the woods ever so mournful; and I heard an owl, away off, who-whooing about somebody that was dead, and a whippowill and a dog crying about somebody that was going to die;”
🟣“If you are with the quality, or at a funeral, or trying to go to sleep when you ain’t sleepy – if you are anywheres where it won’t do for you to scratch, why you will itch all over in upwards of a thousand places.”
🟣“If you tell the truth you do not need a good memory!”
🟣“It made me shiver. And I about made up my mind to pray, and see if I couldn’t try to quit being the kind of a boy I was and be better. So I kneeled down. But the words wouldn’t come. Why wouldn’t they? It warn’t no use to try and hide it from Him. Nor from ME, neither. I knowed very well why they wouldn’t come. It was because my heart warn’t right; it was because I warn’t square; it was because I was playing double. I was letting ON to give up sin, but away inside of me I was holding on to the biggest one of all. I was trying to make my mouth SAY I would do the right thing and the clean thing, and go and write to that nigger’s owner and tell where he was; but deep down in me I knowed it was a lie, and He knowed it. You can’t pray a lie–I found that out.
🟣“It’s lovely to live on a raft. We had the sky, up there, all speckled with stars, and we used to lay on our backs and look up at them, and discuss about whether they was made, or only just happened- Jim he allowed they was made, but I allowed they happened; I judged it would have took too long to make so many.”
🟣“It’s not as bad as it sounds.”
🟣“it’s the little things that smoothes people’s roads the most”
🟣“Jim said that bees won’t sting idiots, but I didn’t believe that, because I tried them lots of times myself and they wouldn’t sting me.”
🟣“Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.”
🟣“Right is right, and wrong is wrong, and a body ain’t got no business doing wrong when he ain’t ignorant and knows better.”
🟣“Sometimes you gwyne to git hurt, en sometimes you gwyne to git sick; but every time you’s gwyne to git well agin.”
🟣“Stars and shadows ain’t good to see by.”
🟣“That is just the way with some people. They get down on a thing when they don’t know nothing about it.”
🟣“The average man don’t like trouble and danger.”
🟣“The pitifulest thing out is a mob; that’s what an army is–a mob; they don’t fight with courage that’s born in them, but with courage that’s borrowed from their mass, and from their officers. But a mob without any MAN at the head of it is BENEATH pitifulness.”
🟣“There was things which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth.”
🟣“To be, or not to be; that is the bare bodkin
🟣“We catched fish, and talked, and we took a swim now and then to keep off sleepiness. It was kind of solemn, drifting down the big still river, laying on our backs looking up at the stars, and we didn’t ever feel like talking loud, and it warn’t often that we laughed, only a kind of low chuckle. We had mighty good weather, as a general thing, and nothing ever happened to us at all, that night, nor the next, nor the next.”
🟣“We have a criminal jury system which is superior to any in the world and it’s efficiency is only marred by the difficulty of finding twelve men every day who don’t know anything and can’t read-”
🟣“What’s the use you learning to do right when it’s troublesome to do right and ain’t no trouble to do wrong, and the wages is just the same?”
🟣“You can’t pray a lie — I found that out.”
Short Huck Finn quotes
🟣“He had a dream and it shot him.” ― Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
“He was sunshine most always-I mean he made it seem like good weather.” ― Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
🟣“I don’t want no better book than what your face is.” ― Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
🟣“If you tell the truth you do not need a good memory!” ― Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
🟣“It was a dreadful thing to see. Human beings can be awful cruel to one another.” ― Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
🟣“It’s as mild as goose-milk.” ― Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
🟣“It’s not as bad as it sounds.” ― Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
🟣“Stars and shadows ain’t good to see by.” ― Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
🟣“They say I work for the angels they never said I was one.” ― Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
🟣“Well, Ben Rogers, if I was as ignorant as you I wouldn’t let on.” ― Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
Thought provoking Huckleberry Finn quotes about morality
🟣“I do not wish any reward but to know I have done the right thing.” ― Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
🟣“I knowed very well why they wouldn’t come. It was because my heart warn’t right; it was because I warn’t square; it was because I was playing double.” ― Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
🟣“If I had a yaller dog that didn’t know no more than a person’s conscience does I would poison him. It takes up more room than all the rest of a person’s insides, and yet ain’t no good, nohow.” ― Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
🟣“It don’t make no difference whether you do right or wrong, a person’s conscience ain’t got no sense, and just goes for him anyway.” ― Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
🟣“Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.” ― Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
🟣“Right is right, and wrong is wrong, and a body ain’t got no business doing wrong when he ain’t ignorant and knows better.” ― Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
🟣“That’s just the way: a person does a low-down thing, and then he don’t want to take no consequences of it.
🟣“Thinks as long as he can hide it, it ain’t no disgrace.” ― Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
🟣“There was things which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth.” ― Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
🟣“What’s the use you learning to do right when it’s troublesome to do right and ain’t no trouble to do wrong, and the wages is just the same?” ― Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn quotes about society and people
🟣“All I say is, kings is kings, and you got to make allowances. Take them all around, they’re a mighty ornery lot.
🟣“It’s the way they’re raised.” ― Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
🟣“All kings is mostly rapscallions, as fur as I can make out.” ― Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
🟣“Hain’t we got all the fools in town on our side? And hain’t that a big enough majority in any town?” ― Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
🟣“It’s the little things that smoothes people’s roads the most.” ― Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
🟣“Now, we’ll start this band of robbers and call it Tom Sawyer’s Gang. Everybody that wants to join has got to take an oath, and write his name in blood.” ― Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
“So then I didn’t care no more about him, because I don’t take no stock in dead people.” ― Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
🟣“That is just the way with some people. They get down on a thing when they don’t know nothing about it.” ― Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
🟣“The average man don’t like trouble and danger.” ― Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
🟣“The pitifulest thing out is a mob; that’s what an army is–a mob; they don’t fight with courage that’s born in them, but with courage that’s borrowed from their mass, and from their officers. But a mob without any MAN at the head of it is BENEATH pitifulness.” ― Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
Philosophical Huckleberry Finn quotes about life, death, and faith
🟣“Having faith is believing in something you just know ain’t true.” ― Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
🟣“He had been drunk over in town, and laid in the gutter all night, and he was a sight to look at. A body would a thought he was Adam, he was just all mud.” ― Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
🟣“I couldn’t bear to think about it; and yet, somehow, I couldn’t think about nothing else.” ― Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
🟣“I deserve it all. Let the cold world do its worst; one thing I know–there’s a grave somewhere for me. The world may go on just as its always done, and take everything from me–loved ones, property, everything–but it can’t take that. Some day I’ll lie down in it and forget it all, and my poor broken heart will be at rest.” ― Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
🟣“I felt good and all washed clean of sin for the first time I had ever felt so in my life, and I knowed I could pray now.” ― Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
🟣“I felt so lonesome I most wished I was dead. The stars were shining, and the leaves rustled in the woods ever so mournful; and I heard an owl, away off, who-whooing about somebody that was dead, and a whippowill and a dog crying about somebody that was going to die.” ― Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
🟣“If you are with the quality, or at a funeral, or trying to go to sleep when you ain’t sleepy – if you are anywheres where it won’t do for you to scratch, why you will itch all over in upwards of a thousand places.” ― Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
🟣“If you notice, most folks don’t go to church only when they’ve got to; but a hog is different.” ― Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
🟣“It’s lovely to live on a raft. We had the sky, up there, all speckled with stars, and we used to lay on our backs and look up at them, and discuss about whether they was made, or only just happened- Jim he allowed they was made, but I allowed they happened; I judged it would have took too long to make so many.” ― Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
🟣“Sometimes you gwyne to git hurt, en sometimes you gwyne to git sick; but every time you’s gwyne to git well agin.” ― Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
🟣“To be, or not to be; that is the bare bodkin. That makes calamity of so long life.” ― Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
🟣“We all go through a challenge in life because without a challenge there’d be no reason to keep going toward your future.” ― Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
🟣“You can’t pray a lie — I found that out.” ― Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
Huckleberry Finn quotes about slavery, freedom, and Jim
🟣“And so when I couldn’t stand it no longer, I lit out. I got into my old rags and my sugar-hogshead again, and was free and satisfied.” ― Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
🟣“I took it up and held it in my hand. I was a trembling because I’d got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself: ‘All right, then, I’ll go to hell’—and tore it up.” ― Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
🟣“Jim he couldn’t see no sense in the most of it, but he allowed we was white folks and knowed better than him.” ― Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
🟣“Jim said it made him all over trembly and feverish to be so close to freedom. Well, I can tell you it made me all over trembly and feverish, too, to hear him, because I begun to get it through my head that he was most free—and who was to blame for it? Why, me.” ― Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
🟣“Jim said that bees won’t sting idiots, but I didn’t believe that, because I tried them lots of times myself and they wouldn’t sting me.” ― Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
“People would call me a low-down Abolitionist and despise me for keeping mum—but that don’t make no difference.” ― Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
🟣“The story of how I left Huckleberry begins — as do all worthy stories — with a goat.” ― John Scalzi
🟣“Then she told me all about the bad place, and said I wished I was there. She got mad, then, but I didn’t mean no harm. All I wanted was to go somewheres, all I wanted was a change, I warn’t particular.” ― Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
🟣“There warn’t no home like a raft, after all. Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a raft don’t. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft.” ― Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
🟣“Yes—en I’s rich now, come to look at it. I owns myself, en I’s wuth eight hund’d dollars. I wisht I had de money, I wouldn’ want no mo’.” ― Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
Huck Finn Freedom Quotes
🟣“Pooty soon I’ll be a-shout’n’ for joy, en I’ll say, it’s all on accounts o’ Huck; I’s a free man, en I couldn’t ever ben free ef it hadn’ ben for Huck; Huck done it. Jim won’t ever forgit you, Huck; you’s de bes’ fren’ Jim’s ever had; en you’s de ONLY fren’ ole Jim’s got now.”
🟣“They hain’t no RIGHT to shut him up! SHOVE! – and don’t you lose a minute. Turn him loose! He ain’t no slave; he’s as free as any cretur that walks this earth!”
🟣“But I reckon I got to light out for the Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she’s going to adopt me and sivilize me, and I can’t stand it. I been there before.
🟣“The Widow Douglas, she took me for her son, and allowed she would sivilize me; but it was rough living in the house all the time, considering how dismal regular and decent the widow was in all her ways; and so when I couldn’t stand it no longer, I lit out.
🟣“This second night we run between seven and eight hours, with a current that was making over four mile an hour. We catched fish and talked, and we took a swim now and then to keep off sleepiness. It was kind of solemn, drifting down the big, still river, laying on our backs looking up at the stars, and we didn’t ever feel like talking loud, and it warn’t often that we laughed – only a little kind of a low chuckle.
🟣“We said there warn’t no home like a raft, after all. Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a raft don’t. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft.
🟣“Well, I can tell you it made me all over trembly and feverish, too, to hear him, because I begun to get it through my head that he WAS most free – and who was to blame for it? Why, ME. I couldn’t get that out of my conscience, no how nor no way. It got to troubling me so I couldn’t rest; I couldn’t stay still in one place. It hadn’t ever come home to me before, what this thing was that I was doing. But now it did; and it stayed with me, and scorched me more and more. I tried to make out to myself that I warn’t to blame, because I didn’t run Jim off from his rightful owner; but it warn’t no use, conscience up and says, every time, “But you knowed he was running for his freedom, and you could a paddled ashore and told somebody.” That was so –
🟣“When it was daylight, here was the clear Ohio water in shore, sure enough, and outside was the old regular Muddy! So it was all up with Cairo.
Verdict
Huckleberry Finn Quotes have been a source of inspiration and guidance for generations. From Huck’s adventures and misadventures, we can learn important lessons about friendship, loyalty, and the power of the individual. Even though the novel is set in the past, its themes are still relevant today. No matter what our circumstances, Huck’s words can help us stay true to ourselves and keep our hopes and dreams alive.