Weather is a literary specialty, and no untrained hand can turn out a good article on it
Mark TwainRead
What do we call love, hate, charity, revenge, humanity, forgiveness? Different results of the master impulse, the necessity of securing one's self-approval.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that complex human emotions are influenced by a fundamental need for self-approval.
Mark Twain's quote reflects on the various aspects of human emotions such as love, hate, charity, revenge, humanity, and forgiveness, proposing that they are all manifestations of a deeper impulse: the necessity for individuals to secure their own self-approval. This insight highlights how our actions and feelings are often driven by the desire for validation and acceptance from within ourselves, prompting us to examine the motivations behind our behaviors.
Themes
LoveSelf-ApprovalHuman EmotionsForgivenessCharity
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared in a discussion about the nature of human emotions at a philosophy club.
More from Mark Twain
All quotes βThe 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
Defend an institution. Follow the courts or the media, or a court or a newspaper. Do not speak of 'our institutions' unless you are making them yours by acting on their behalf. Institutions don't protect themselves. They go down like dominoes unless each is defended from the beginning.
Timothy D. SnyderRead
Paradise was unendurable, otherwise the first man would have adapted to it; this world is no less so, since here we regret paradise or anticipate another one. What to do? Where to go? Do nothing and go nowhere, easy enough.
Emile M. CioranRead
I almost do not exist now and I know it; God knows what lives in me in place of me.
Fyodor DostoevskyRead
I'm very attracted to exile literature - particularly Nabokov - exactly because the idea of being away from home for any serious length of time is so inconceivable to me.
Zadie SmithRead
The weak are always anxious for justice and equality. The strong pay no heed to either.
AristotleRead
Just imagine living in a world without mirrors. You'd dream about your face and imagine it as an outer reflection of what is inside you. And then, when you reached forty, someone put a mirror before you for the first time in your life. Imagine your fright! You'd see the face of a stranger. And you'd know quite clearly what you are unable to grasp: your face is not you.
Milan KunderaRead