Weather is a literary specialty, and no untrained hand can turn out a good article on it
Mark TwainRead
In our day we don't allow a hundred and thirty years to elapse between glimpses of a marvel. If somebody should discover a creek in the county next to the one that the North Pole is in, Europe and America would start fifteen costly expeditions thither; one to explore the creek, and the other fourteen to hunt for each other.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote critiques the slow progress of exploration and discovery in the past compared to the rapid response expected today.
Mark Twain's quote reflects on the differences in the urgency and excitement of exploration in his time compared to earlier eras. He uses humor to highlight how, in the past, notable discoveries were infrequent and costly, implying that contemporary society is much quicker to act on new findings, suggesting a more dynamic interaction with the world.
Themes
ExplorationDiscoveryChangeAdventureProgress
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used during a discussion about the pace of scientific discoveries in modern society.
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
I don't do formal debates, because formal debates where you have two people up on a stage in equal status, and each of them is given 20 minutes to give their point of view, and then 10 minutes for a rebuttal, or whatever, that creates the illusion that you really do have here two equal points of view of equal scientific standing.
Richard DawkinsRead
When a magician lets you notice something on your own, his lie becomes impenetrable.
TellerRead
I would like to believe this is a story I’m telling. I need to believe it. I must believe it. Those who can believe that such stories are only stories have a better chance. If it’s a story I’m telling, then I have control over the ending. Then there will be an ending, to the story, and real life will come after it. I can pick up where I left off.
Margaret AtwoodRead
Catastrophes come when some dominant institution, swollen like a soap-bubble and still standing without foundations, suddenly crumbles at the touch of what may seem a word or idea, but is really some stronger material source.
George SantayanaRead
The lotus grows in muddy waters but this flower does not show any trace of it: So we have to live in the world.
B.K.S. IyengarRead
The cry has been that when war is declared, all opposition should be hushed. A sentiment more unworthy of a free country could hardly be propagated.
William Ellery ChanningRead