The dictionary says a carbuncle is a kind of jewel. Humor is out of place in a dictionary.
- Following the Equator

AI image created by Barbara Schmidt

Mark Twain quaintly writes (London, Feb. 6th) of the Edition for 1900:
"In my experience I have found that one can do without principles,
but not without the Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary."
- advertisement in New York Sun, April 14, 1900, p. 7.

Oh, that worthless, worthless book, that timid book, that shifty book, that uncertain book, that time-serving book, that exasperating book, that unspeakable book, the Unlimited Dictionary! that book with but one object in life: to get in more and shadings of the words than its competitors. With the result that nearly every time it gets done shading a good old useful word it means everything general and nothing in particular.
- "Three Thousand Years Among the Microbes"

I have studied it often, but I never could discover the plot.
- quoted in Mark Twain Anecdotes, Cyril Clemens