Weather is a literary specialty, and no untrained hand can turn out a good article on it
Mark TwainRead
It is not like studying German, where you mull along, in a groping, uncertain way, for thirty years; and at last, just as you think you've got it, they spring the subjunctive on you, and there you are. No- and I see now plainly enough, that the great pity about the German language is, that you can't fall off it and hurt yourself. There is nothing like that feature to make you attend strictly to business.
Interpretation
Learning German can be frustrating because of its complexities, but those challenges are what keep you focused on mastering it.
Mark Twain expresses the challenges of learning the German language by comparing it to a situation where one might easily fall off to emphasize the importance of being fully engaged in the learning process. He humorously illustrates that the difficulties and unpredictabilities in mastering a language compel learners to pay attention and work hard, while the relatively safe nature of learning German may make it less urgent or engaging.
In practice
In a speech about language education, highlighting the complexities of different languages.
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.
Because it is correct to make a priority of young people, taking care that they turn out as well as possible.
The quality of our reading is not only an index of the quality of our thought; it is our best-known route to developing whole new pathways in the cerebral evolution of our species.
No one should be held back from realising their potential by fears that they will not be able to afford to go to university or that they will graduate with unmanageable levels of debt.
Courses in the humanities, in particular, often seem impractical, but they are vital, because they stretch your imagination and challenge your mind to become more responsive, more critical, bigger.
You cannot open a book without learning something.
Insensibly he formed the most delightful habit in the world, the habit of reading: he did not know that thus he was providing himself with a refuge from all the distress of life; he did not know either that he was creating for himself an unreal world which would make the real world of every day a source of bitter disappointment.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.