# Quote — Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad

> Guides cannot master the subtleties of the American joke.

- Author: [Mark Twain](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain.md)
- Book: [The Innocents Abroad](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/the-innocents-abroad.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mark_Twain#The_Innocents_Abroad_(1869)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md)
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/the-innocents-abroad/guides-cannot-master

## More from this book

> They spell it "Vinci" and pronounce it "Vinchy". Foreigners always spell better than they pronounce.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/the-innocents-abroad/they-spell-it-vinci.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md)

> Virtue never has been as respectable as money.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/the-innocents-abroad/virtue-never-has.md)

Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [money](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/money.md)

> The people of those foreign countries are very, very ignorant. They looked curiously at the costumes we had brought from the wilds of America. They observed that we talked loudly at table sometimes. They noticed that we looked out for expenses and got what we conveniently could out of a franc, and wondered where in the mischief we came from. In Paris they just simply opened their eyes and stared when we spoke to them in French! We never did succeed in making those idiots understand their own language.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/the-innocents-abroad/the-people-of-those.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [travel](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/travel.md)