Deep within the heart of every evangelist lies the wreck of a car salesman.
Interpretation
This quote humorously suggests that beneath the passion of an evangelist, there may exist a more mundane and less admirable past.
H. L. Menckenβs quote highlights the idea that many individuals with fervent beliefs or strong convictions may have started from more commercial or less noble beginnings. By comparing evangelists to car salesmen, he implies that their passionate zeal might mask a history of persuasion and salesmanship, challenging the notion of purity in their motivations and beliefs.
In practice
This quote can be used during a discussion about the motivations behind religious or ideological leaders.
I know a good many men of great learning-that is, men born with an extraordinary eagerness and capacity to acquire knowledge. One and all, they tell me that they can't recall learning anything of any value in school. All that schoolmasters managed to accomplish with them was to test and determine the amount of knowledge that they had already acquired independently-and not infrequently the determination was made clumsily and inaccurately.
It takes a long while for a naturally trustful person to reconcile himself to the idea that after all God will not help him
It is the theory of all modern civilized governments that they protect and foster the liberty of the citizen; it is the practice of all of them to limit its exercise, and sometimes very narrowly.
The central belief of every moron is that he is the victim of a mysterious conspiracy against his common rights and true deserts.
The cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy.
It is my conviction that no normal man ever fell in love, within the ordinary meaning of the term, after the age of thirty.
A crash is when your competitor's program dies. When your program dies, it is an 'idiosyncrasy'.
You've got to be honest; if you can fake that, you've got it made.
It is my belief that nearly any invented quotation, played with confidence, stands a good chance to deceive.
I've always thought that a big laugh is a really loud noise from the soul saying, "Ain't that the truth."
The appreciative smile, the chuckle, the soundless mirth, so important to the success of comedy, cannot be understood unless one sits among the audience and feels the warmth created by the quality of laughter that the audience takes home with it.
A new poll shows that Tiger Woods' popularity has dropped from 85 percent to 33 percent. President Obama's popularity is also at 33 percent, but Tiger had more fun getting there.
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