Weather is a literary specialty, and no untrained hand can turn out a good article on it
Mark TwainRead
Obscurity and a competence—that is the life that is best worth living.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Living a simple yet competent life away from the limelight is the most fulfilling.
Mark Twain suggests that a life characterized by obscurity and competence is superior to one filled with fame and uncertainty. The essence of this quote lies in the appreciation of pursuing skillfulness and mastery in the shadows, away from societal expectations and pressures, leading to a fulfilling existence free from the burdens of public scrutiny.
Themes
ObscurityCompetenceLifeFulfillmentSimplicity
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a motivational speech focusing on the value of skilled craftsmanship over fame.
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.
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
Why should we tolerate a diet of weak poisons, a home in insipid surroundings, a circle of acquaintances who are not quite our enemies, the noise of motors with just enough relief to prevent insanity? Who would want to live in a world which is just not quite fatal?
Rachel CarsonRead
People look at the same passage, and one person will say this is the best thing he's ever read, and another person will say it's absolutely idiotic. I mean, there's no way to reconcile those two things. You just have to forget the whole business of what people are saying.
Paul AusterRead
Life is thickly sown with thorns. I know no other remedy than to pass rapidly over them. The longer we dwell on our misfortunes the greater is their power to harm us.
VoltaireRead
God hath work to do in this world; and to desert it because of its difficulties and entanglements, is to cast off His authority. It is not enough that we be just, that we be righteous, and walk with God in holiness; but we must also serve our generation, as David did before he fell asleep. God hath a work to do; and not to help Him is to oppose Him.
John OwenRead
If people have to put labels on me, I'd prefer the first label to be human being, the second label to be pacifist, and the third to be folk singer.
Joan BaezRead
What has destroyed liberty and the rights of man in every government which has ever existed under the sun? The generalizing and concentrating all cares and power into one body, no matter whether of the autocrats of Russia or France, or of the aristocrats of a Venetian senate.
Thomas JeffersonRead