Weather is a literary specialty, and no untrained hand can turn out a good article on it
Mark TwainRead
The political and commercial morals of the United States are not merely food for laughter, they are an entire banquet.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote humorously critiques the ethics in politics and commerce in the United States.
Mark Twain uses humorous hyperbole to highlight the serious lack of integrity in the political and commercial sectors of American society. By describing these morals as not just laughable, but as an entire 'banquet', he suggests that the corruption and unethical practices are abundant and deeply ingrained.
Themes
PoliticsMoralsEthicsHumorCorruption
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech on ethical business practices, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of integrity.
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.
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
I live on a one-way street that's also a dead end. I'm not sure how I got there.
Steven WrightRead
Comedy is to force us to observe ourselves in ways that are humorous and yet, at the end of the day, that cause us enough discomfort with the status quo to make a change.
Michael Eric DysonRead
A transposable aphorism is a malaise of the urge to be witty, or in other words, a maxim that is untroubled by the fact that the opposite of what it says is equally true so long as it appears to be funny.
Umberto EcoRead
The bigger the humbug, the better people will like it.
P. T. BarnumRead
The appreciative smile, the chuckle, the soundless mirth, so important to the success of comedy, cannot be understood unless one sits among the audience and feels the warmth created by the quality of laughter that the audience takes home with it.
James ThurberRead
If you have no tragedy, you have no comedy. Crying and laughing are the same emotion. If you laugh too hard, you cry. And vice versa.
Sid CaesarRead