Weather is a literary specialty, and no untrained hand can turn out a good article on it
Mark TwainRead
If Christians should vote their duty to God at the polls, they would carry every election, and do it with ease. They would elect every clean candidate in the United States, and defeat every soiled one. Their prodigious power would be quickly realized and recognized, and afterward there would be no unclean candidates upon any ticket, and graft would cease.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the moral responsibility of Christians to vote according to their ethical beliefs, which could lead to positive political outcomes.
Mark Twain's quote highlights the significant influence that Christian voters could have on politics if they chose to align their voting choices with their moral and ethical duties to God. By doing so, they would not only elevate candidates who embody their values but also eliminate those who do not, thereby transforming the political landscape into one cleaner and more aligned with high ethical standards, thus reducing corruption and enabling a more virtuous governance.
Themes
VotingEthicsResponsibilityMoralityPolitics
In practice
Example use cases
In a community meeting discussing the importance of civic engagement, this quote could inspire attendees to consider their moral responsibilities when voting.
More from Mark Twain
All quotes →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.
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
Protect me from knowing what I don't need to know. Protect me from even knowing that there are things to know that I don't know. Protect me from knowing that I decided not to know about the things that I decided not to know about. Amen. [...] Lord, lord, lord. Protect me from the consequences of the above prayer.
Douglas AdamsRead
If this is the way Queen Victoria treats her prisoners, she doesn't deserve to have any.
Oscar WildeRead
Our society does reward beauty on the outside over health on the inside. Women must not be blamed for choosing short-term beauty "fixes" that harm our long-term health, since our life spans are inverted under the beauty myth, and there is no great social or economic incentive for women to live a long time.
Naomi WolfRead
God felt, God tasted and enjoyed is indeed God, but God with those gifts which flatter the soul, God in darkness, in privation, in forsakenness, in sensibility, is so much God, that he is so to speak God bare and alone. Shall we fear this death, which is to produce in us the true divine life of grace?
Francois FenelonRead
How great, therefore, the wickedness of human nature is! How many girls there are who prevent conception and kill and expel tender fetuses, although procreation is the work of God.
Martin LutherRead
The soul should take care of the body, just as the pilgrim on his way to Makkah takes care of his camel; but if the pilgrim spends his whole time in feeding and adorning his camel, the caravan will leave him behind, and he will perish in the desert.
Al-GhazaliRead