Weather is a literary specialty, and no untrained hand can turn out a good article on it
Mark TwainRead
Whoever has lived long enough to find out what life is, knows how deep a debt of gratitude we owe to Adam, the first great benefactor of our race. He brought death into the world.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the complex nature of life and death, suggesting that understanding life includes recognizing the inevitability of death.
In this quote, Mark Twain emphasizes the profound impact of death on our understanding of life. He presents Adam, a biblical figure, as a metaphorical figure whose transgression brought mortality to humanity, thereby shaping the human experience. The debt of gratitude mentioned implies that life, with all its struggles and beauty, is deeply intertwined with the reality of death, prompting reflection on what it means to truly live.
In practice
In a speech about the value of life and mortality.
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.
I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created parasitic wasps with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of Caterpillars.
No Man has a more perfect reliance on the all-wise and powerful dispensations of the Supreme Being than I have, nor thinks his aid more necessary...The man must be bad indeed who can look upon the events of the American Revolution without feeling the warmest gratitude towards the great Author of the Universe whose divine interposition was so frequently manifested in our behalf....In war He directed the sword, and in peace, He has ruled in our councils.
People just weren't interesting. Maybe they weren't supposed to be. But animals, birds, even insects were. I couldn't understand it.
. And it is youth who must inherit the tribulation, the sorrow and the triumphs that are the aftermath of war.
I do not play chess β I fight at chess. Therefore, I willingly combine the tactical with the strategic, the fantastic with the scientific, the combinative with the positional, and I aim to respond to the demands of each given position.
All governments lie, but disaster lies in wait for countries whose officials smoke the same hashish they give out.
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