Quotations about Twins and Triplets
Thare iz 2 things in this life for which we are never fully prepared, and them iz twins... Twins are two very interesting acksidents tew happen in sumboddy elses family, but one twin at a time suits me the most. ~Josh Billings
In form and feature, face and limb,
I grew so like my brother,
That folks got taking me for him
And each for one another.
It puzzled all our kith and kin,
It reach'd an awful pitch;
For one of us was born a twin
And not a soul knew which...
~Henry S. Leigh, "The Twins," Carols of Cockayne, 1869
By her he had two children at one birth. ~William Shakespeare,
They were born twins about fifty years ago... [T]hey're not twins now... After they reached the age of thirty they never were twins again. Miss Hannah has grown old, not too gracefully, and Miss Ada has stayed thirty, less gracefully still. I don't know whether Miss Hannah can smile or not; I've never caught her at it so far, but Miss Ada smiles all the time and that's worse. ~L. M. Montgomery, Anne of the Island, 1915
The doctor pronounced upon oath
That the likeness between us was sich,
He could never tell either from both,
And always took t'other for which;
And when we were able to run
We puzzled our nurse and our mother,
Who settled if either was one—
'Twas evident neither was t'other.
~F. C. Burnard, Paris; or, Vive Lemprière: An Original Burlesque, 1866
I never could look at these little fellows without an inexplicable feeling coming over me; and though there was nothing so very remarkable or unprecedented about them, except the singular coincidence of two sisters simultaneously making the world such a generous present; yet, the mere fact of there being twins always seemed curious; in fact, to me at least, all twins are prodigies; and still I hardly know why this should be; for all of us in our own persons furnish numerous examples of the same phenomenon. Are not our thumbs twins? A regular Castor and Pollux? And all of our fingers? Are not our arms, hands, legs, feet, eyes, ears, all twins; born at one birth, and as much alike as they possibly can be?
Can it be, that the Greek grammarians invented their dual number for the particular benefit of twins? ~Herman Melville, Redburn: His First Voyage, 1849
...So we grow together,
Like to a double cherry, seeming parted,
But yet an union in partition;
Two lovely berries moulded on one stem;
So, with two seeming bodies, but one heart...
~William Shakespeare, Midsummer Night's Dream, c.1595 [Context note: This isn't actually about twins.
You can spend too much time wondering which of identical twins is the more alike. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com
These brothers to show, I defy,
Such a likeness from crowns to their shins,
As you see in the true Gemini,
The real original twins;
We beat e'en the famed Siamese—
From one egg we've both sprung, you've heard tell,
You may see we're as like as two peas,
And we came from the very same shell.
~F. C. Burnard, Paris; or, Vive Lemprière: An Original Burlesque, 1866
Methinks you are my glass, and not my brother:
I see by you I am a sweet-faced youth.
~William Shakespeare, Comedy of Errors, c.1589
Oh, my beloved! — my twin soul! — mine from all past eternity, and part of my immortal being to all futurity! ~Charles Mackay, The Twin Soul, 1887
...all who joy would win
Must share it,—happiness was born a twin.
~Lord Byron, Don Juan
TWINS — 2 much. ~Josh Billings, revised by H. Montague
Nay, then, thus:
We came into the world like brother and brother;
And now let's go hand in hand, not one before another.
~William Shakespeare, Comedy of Errors, c.1589
Body and spirit are twins: God only knows which is which... ~Algernon Charles Swinburne, "The Higher Pantheism in a Nutshell," 1880
Sufficient unto the day is one baby. As long as you are in your right mind don't you ever pray for twins. Twins amount to a permanent riot; and there ain't any real difference between triplets and a insurrection. ~Mark Twain
For months they both had puzzled,
Had studied all the time,
For what to name the baby,
Was point exceeding fine.
But on the day eventful,
When the stork was flying high,
They concluded to name the baby,
Ein Zwei Drei.
~Elon Allan Richards, "Triplets," The Poet Man,