QuoteProject
The silent colossal National Lie that is the support and confederate of all the tyrannies and shams and inequalities and unfairnesses that afflict the peoples — that is the one to throw bricks and sermons at.
Mark Twain
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote criticizes the societal norms that perpetuate tyranny and inequality, urging people to challenge these injustices.

Mark Twain's quote highlights the pervasive nature of societal falsehoods that support various unjust systems, emphasizing the need for individuals to confront these entrenched beliefs. It suggests that these 'silent colossal lies' allow various forms of tyranny and inequality to flourish, and that it is the responsibility of the people to actively resist and criticize these shams through both direct action ('throw bricks') and moral persuasion ('sermons').

Themes

SilenceTruthTyrannyInequalitySocial JusticeCriticism

In practice

Example use cases

During a social justice rally, this quote could highlight the need to speak out against systemic oppression.

More from Mark Twain

Weather is a literary specialty, and no untrained hand can turn out a good article on it
Mark TwainRead
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

in stillness, I watched myselfget eaten by mosquitoes... the itch was maddening at first but eventually it just melded into a general burning feeling and i rode that heat to a mld euphoria. I allowed the pain to lose its specific associations and become pure sensation... and that eventually lifted me out of myself and into meditation.
Elizabeth GilbertRead
An animal that embarks on forming states without greatly restricting egoism will perish.
Erwin SchrodingerRead
There are forms of oppression and domination which become invisible - the new normal.
Michel FoucaultRead
The great divide is not between faiths, but one between intolerant zealots of any tradition and the large numbers of decent, peaceful believers likewise found in each tradition.
Nicholas KristofRead
Is Wagner a human being at all? Is he not rather a disease? He contaminates everything he touches - he has made music sick.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
...for whether we want to or not, we belong to our time and we share in its opinions, its feelings, even its delusions.
Henri MatisseRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.