Weather is a literary specialty, and no untrained hand can turn out a good article on it
Mark TwainRead
The most difficult We do not deal in facts when we are contemplating ourselves.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the challenges of self-reflection and how our perceptions may differ from reality.
Mark Twain's quote suggests that when we look inward and contemplate our own selves, we are often influenced by subjective feelings rather than objective facts. This highlights the complexity of self-awareness, revealing that our understanding of ourselves can be distorted, as emotions and personal biases shape our perceptions.
In practice
During a personal development workshop to highlight the importance of self-awareness.
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.
Much of what is euphemistically known as the middle class, merely because it dresses up to go to work, is now reduced to proletarian conditions of existence. Many white-collar jobs require no more skill and pay even less than blue-collar jobs, conferring little status or security.
I have not been able to discover whether there exists a precise French equivalent for the common Anglo-American expression 'killing time.' It's a very crass and breezy expression, when you ponder it for a moment, considering that time, after all, is killing us.
There is no substitute for virtue. Keep your thoughts virtuous. Rise above the filth that's all around you in this world and stand tall in strength and virtue. You can do this and you will be happier for it for as long as you live. God bless you in cherishing, developing and holding on to this great gift, the quality of personal virtue.
Till we can become divine, we must be content to be human, lest in our hurry for change we sink to something lower.
I believe what really happens in history is this: the old man is always wrong; and the young people are always wrong about what is wrong with him. The practical form it takes is this: that, while the old man may stand by some stupid custom, the young man always attacks it with some theory that turns out to be equally stupid.
In the meantime, I would drink, rest, and ponder the meaning of this mob.
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