Weather is a literary specialty, and no untrained hand can turn out a good article on it
A man is accepted into a church for what he believes and he is turned out for what he knows.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the conflict between faith and knowledge, suggesting that while belief may grant one acceptance, understanding can lead to rejection.
Mark Twain's quote critiques the dichotomy between belief and knowledge within religious institutions. It implies that individuals are welcomed into communities based on their faith, but when they gain knowledge or question doctrines, they may be ostracized. This reflects a broader commentary on how society often values adherence to belief over the pursuit of truth and critical thinking.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about religious institutions, one might use this quote to illustrate how knowledge can sometimes challenge accepted beliefs.
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.
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.
Similar quotes
Music is essentially useless, as is life.
Each moment is defined by a multitude of histories, the past constantly converging upon us, perpetually decaying and reforming itself on the steady pulse of now, now, now, now.
Lust is the cause of generation_x000D_ _x000D_ Appetite is the support of life_x000D_ _x000D_ Fear or timidity is the prolongation of life, and_x000D_ _x000D_ Fraud the preservation of its instruments.
Heaven truly knows that thou art false as hell.
Canada will be a strong country when Canadians of all provinces feel at home in all parts of the country, and when they feel that all Canada belongs to them.
The Contessa was surely way ahead of her time, too, in believing that men were not only usless and idiotic, but downright dangerous. That idea wouldn't catch on big in her native country until the last three years of the Vietnam War.