Weather is a literary specialty, and no untrained hand can turn out a good article on it
Mark TwainRead
Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Censorship restricts access to information for everyone based on the limitations of a few.
Mark Twain's quote reflects the absurdity of censorship by illustrating that it is unreasonable to deny access to certain knowledge or experiences for all, just because some may be unable to handle it. The quote emphasizes the importance of freedom of expression and the right to access information, suggesting that restrictions should not be imposed based on the inability of a minority to understand or cope with it.
Themes
CensorshipFreedomExpressionInformationAccess
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about media freedom, one might say, 'As Mark Twain pointed out, censorship is like denying a steak to an adult because a baby can't chew it.'
More from Mark Twain
All quotes βThe 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.
Mark TwainRead
You can't reason with your heart; it has its own laws, and thumps about things which the intellect scorns.
Mark TwainRead
To be good is noble; but to show others how to be good is nobler and no trouble.
Mark TwainRead
Name the greatest of all inventors. Accident.
Mark TwainRead
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.
Mark TwainRead
Similar quotes
As birds' wings beat the solid air without which none could fly so words freed by the imagination affirm reality by their flight.
William Carlos WilliamsRead
Though an atom is invisible, unthinkable, yet in it are the whole power and potency of the universe.
Swami VivekanandaRead
Fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement: he is a rebel who must lay down his arms. Laying down your arms, surrendering, saying you are sorry, realizing that you have been on the wrong track and getting ready to start life over again from the ground floor-that is the only way out of a "hole." This process of surrender-this movement full speed astern-is repentance.
C. S. LewisRead
From religion comes a man's purpose; from science, his power to achieve it. Sometimes people ask if religion and science are not opposed to one another. They are: in the sense that the thumb and fingers of my hands are opposed to one another. It is an opposition by means of which anything can be grasped.
William Henry BraggRead
I do not want to father a flock, to be the fetish of fools and fanatics or the founder of a faith whose followers are content to echo my opinions. I want each man to cut his own way through the jungle.
Aleister CrowleyRead
Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so. You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.
Mahatma GandhiRead