Weather is a literary specialty, and no untrained hand can turn out a good article on it
Mark TwainRead
A person that started in to carry a cat home by the tail was gitting knowledge that was always going to be useful to him, and warn't ever going to grow dim or doubtful.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that experiences, even if challenging, provide valuable knowledge that remains useful throughout life.
Mark Twain emphasizes the importance of practical experiences in acquiring wisdom. The act of trying to carry a cat home by its tail symbolizes the often difficult but necessary lessons we learn through our actions. Such experiences, even if mistakes are made, contribute to our growth and understanding of the world, making the knowledge gained indelible and reliable.
In practice
Using this quote in a speech about the importance of experiential learning.
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.
Instead of a dedicated room, my best trigger is the actual habit of reading over the texts from the day before. Marking. Changing. Fussing. This ritual amounts to a habit of trust. Trust that I can make it better. That if I keep trying, I will come closer to something true.
What is called honors and dignities, and even honor and dignity, is generally fool's gold.
Wisdom lies neither in fixity nor in change, but in the dialectic between the two. A constant coming and going: wisdom lies in the momentary.
To be great, be whole; Exclude nothing. Be whole in everything.
With reference to the younger generation..."If the experience of their exhausted, insomniac, dispirited elders makes them decide they'd prefer not to go straight from the classroom to the cubicle to the coffin, it doesn't mean they're lazy. It means they're sane."
At one point, as Samuel urges Adam to raise his boys well regardless of the blood that might be in them, Adam tells him, "You can't make a race horse of a pig." Samuel replies, "No, but you can make a very fast pig.
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