Weather is a literary specialty, and no untrained hand can turn out a good article on it
Mark TwainRead
My books are like water; those of the great geniuses are wine. (Fortunately) everybody drinks water.
Interpretation
Mark Twain compares his writing to water, accessible to all, while acknowledging the brilliance of great writers as exquisite wine.
In this quote, Mark Twain humbly reflects on the nature of his own literary works, suggesting that while they may not possess the grandeur of those produced by the great geniuses of literature, they serve an essential purpose, much like water does for survival. He implies that his writing is basic yet vital and that it resonates with a wider audience, emphasizing the importance of accessibility in literature regardless of its perceived quality.
In practice
This quote could be used in a speech about the value of accessible literature.
Weather is a literary specialty, and no untrained hand can turn out a good article on it
The easy part of being an artist is figuring out the message that everyone else is ready to hear. The hard part is waiting for the proper lull to make the announcement.
You can't reason with your heart; it has its own laws, and thumps about things which the intellect scorns.
To be good is noble; but to show others how to be good is nobler and no trouble.
Name the greatest of all inventors. Accident.
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.
No child in Africa, and in fact anywhere in the world, should be denied education.
The central dilemma in journalism is that you don't know what you don't know.
One summer morning at sunrise a long time ago I met a little girl with a book under her arm. I asked her why she was out so early and she answered that there were too many books and far too little time. And there she was absolutely right.
You can solve most of your writing problems if you stop after every sentence and ask: what does the reader need to know next?
Merely gathering knowledge may become the most useless work a man can do. What can you do to help and heal the world? That is the educational test.
Our system rewards specific talents more than anything. I got pushed forward for having certain capacities. Others had their horizons systematically lowered for having capacities that our academic system had no use for. I've seen countless people lose heart and feel like they should settle for less, that they don't deserve abundance.
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