Weather is a literary specialty, and no untrained hand can turn out a good article on it
Mark TwainRead
It put our energies to sleep and made visionaries of us - dreamers and indolent... It is good to begin life poor; it is good to begin life rich - these are wholesome; but to begin it prospectively rich! The man who has not experienced it cannot imagine the curse of it.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the dangers of expecting riches without the experience of earning them.
Mark Twain reflects on the concept of wealth and its implications on a person's character and ambitions. He suggests that starting life with either wealth or poverty can be a wholesome experience, but having the prospect of wealth without actual experience turns people into dreamers and can paralyze their initiative. This perspective highlights the importance of working towards one's goals rather than merely dreaming of them.
In practice
In a motivational speech about overcoming adversity and the importance of hard work.
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.
It is not good for all our wishes to be filled; through sickness we recognize the value of health; through evil, the value of good; through hunger, the value of food; through exertion, the value of rest.
Remember that the good angels do what they can to preserve men from sin and obtain God's honor. But they do not lose courage when men fail.
We should allow others' excellences, to preserve a modest opinion of our own.
The average estimate themselves by what they do, the above average by what they are.
This silence, this moment, every moment, if it's genuinely inside you, brings what you need. There's nothing to believe. Only when I stopped believing in myself did I come into this beauty. Sit quietly, and listen for a voice that will say, 'Be more silent.' Die and be quiet. Quietness is the surest sign that you've died. Your old life was a frantic running from silence. Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking. Live in silence.
Most people who deal in words don't have much faith in them and I am no exception.
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