Weather is a literary specialty, and no untrained hand can turn out a good article on it
Mark TwainRead
The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them.
Interpretation
Reading good books is essential for gaining knowledge and insight, just as being able to read is crucial.
Mark Twain's quote emphasizes the importance of reading good literature as a means of enriching one's mind. He suggests that even someone who can read, but chooses not to engage with quality books, is no better off than someone who cannot read at all, highlighting the value of actively seeking knowledge and wisdom through reading.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of literacy, you could quote Twain to emphasize the need for quality reading materials.
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.
In many parts of the world, especially Pakistan and Afghanistan, terrorism, war and conflict stop children to go to their schools. We are really tired of these wars. Women and children are suffering.
In schools, including universities, most resources are spent to purchase the time and motivation of a limited number of people to take up predetermined problems in a ritually defined setting. The most radical alternative to school would be a network or service which gave each man the same opportunity to share his current concern with others motivated by the same concern.
Education is a slow moving but powerful force
I've got a 12-year-old grandson who, when he was 3 years old, before he could say many other words, could name the different kinds of dinosaurs.
I would rather have one article a day of this sort; and these ten or twenty lines might readily represent a whole day's hard work in the way of concentrated, intense thinking and revision, polish of style, weighing of words.
Books have led some to learning and others to madness.
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