Weather is a literary specialty, and no untrained hand can turn out a good article on it
Mark TwainRead
Ignorant people think it is the noise which fighting cats make that is so aggravating, but it ain't so; it is the sickening grammar that they use.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The true annoyance of fighting cats lies not in their noise, but in their poor grammar.
In this quote, Mark Twain humorously critiques the way people perceive chaos and fighting in basic terms, suggesting that the real irritation comes from the language used rather than the situation itself. This reflects Twain's wit in merging observations of human behavior with linguistic commentary, elevating common experiences into insightful humor.
Themes
HumorLanguageCritiqueTwainChaos
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used during a debate about language and its social implications.
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.
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You can't reason with your heart; it has its own laws, and thumps about things which the intellect scorns.
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To be good is noble; but to show others how to be good is nobler and no trouble.
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Name the greatest of all inventors. Accident.
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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.
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