Weather is a literary specialty, and no untrained hand can turn out a good article on it
Mark TwainRead
I find no change of consequence in grown people, I do not miss the dead. It does not surprise me to hear that this friend or that friend died at such and such a time, because I fully expected that sort of news. But somehow I had made no calculation on the infants. It never occurred to me that infants grow up...These unexpected changes, from infancy to youth, and from youth to maturity, are by far the most startling things I meet with.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on the inevitable changes that occur from infancy to adulthood, emphasizing the unexpected nature of growth.
Mark Twain expresses a sense of surprise and reflection regarding the transformation from childhood to adulthood. While he is accustomed to the death of friends, which feels predictable, the transition of infants growing into mature individuals catches him off guard. This leads to a deeper contemplation of the surprising nature of life’s changes that occur without our conscious realization.
Themes
ChangeGrowthLifeTransformationSurprise
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared in a graduation speech to highlight the rapid changes students will face in their lives.
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
But now, we are becoming suspicious of the very things we have long celebrated - free markets, trade, immigration, and technological change. And all this is happening when the tide is going our way. Just as the world is opening up, America is closing down.
Fareed ZakariaRead
The quest for freedom, dignity, and the rights of man will never end.
William J. Brennan, Jr.Read
We have no choice but to reform this country.
Emmanuel MacronRead
You cannot save wonderful towns. You can only save wonderful towns by building new ones.
Ludwig Mies Van Der RoheRead
We shall strike. We shall organize boycotts. We shall demonstrate and have political campaigns. We shall pursue the revolution we have proposed. We are sons and daughters of the farm workers' revolution, a revolution of the poor seeking bread and justice.
Cesar ChavezRead
I had to change. I had to change was the thought that drove me in those months of planning. Not into a different person, but back to the person I used to be—strong and responsible, clear-eyed and driven, ethical and good. And the PCT would make me that way. There, I’d walk and think about my entire life. I’d find my strength again, far from everything that had made my life ridiculous.
Cheryl StrayedRead