Weather is a literary specialty, and no untrained hand can turn out a good article on it
Mark TwainRead
The very ink with which history is written is merely fluid prejudice.
Interpretation
What this quote means
History is often biased and shaped by personal beliefs rather than objective truth.
Mark Twain's quote highlights the idea that history is not a straightforward account of events but rather influenced by the perspectives and prejudices of those who record it. It suggests that what is accepted as 'history' may reflect the opinions and biases of historians, rather than an unbiased reality, urging us to question the narratives that shape our understanding of the past.
Themes
HistoryPrejudiceBiasTruthNarrative
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture on the importance of historical context, I would use this quote to emphasize the biases in historical narratives.
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
The history of women is the history of the worst form of tyranny the world has ever known. The tyranny of the weak over the strong. It is the only tyranny that lasts.
Oscar WildeRead
Defend our liberties and fashion into one united people the multitudes brought hither out of many kindred and tongues.
Thomas JeffersonRead
In every heart there is an inner room, where we can hold our greatest treasures and our deepest pain.
Marianne WilliamsonRead
I have listened _x000D_ And I have looked _x000D_ With open eyes. _x000D_ I have poured my soul _x000D_ Into the world _x000D_ Seeking the unknown _x000D_ Within the known. _x000D_ And I sing out loud _x000D_ In amazement.
Rabindranath TagoreRead
How can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state?
PlatoRead
I am not a religious man. I have not attended a service for many years. But I do believe in God. My own practice of religion, you could say, it a nonpractice. I personally feel that it's just as worthy on a weekend to rake the lawns of an elderly neighbor or to climb a mountain and marvel at the beauty of this land we live in as it is to sing hosannas or go to Mass. In other words, I think every many finds his own church- and not all of them have four walls - Judge Haig (Page 399)
Jodi PicoultRead