Weather is a literary specialty, and no untrained hand can turn out a good article on it
Mark TwainRead
A few fly bites cannot stop a spirited horse.
Interpretation
Minor setbacks should not discourage those with strong determination.
Mark Twain's quote suggests that temporary difficulties or small challenges ('fly bites') should not deter someone with a strong spirit and commitment ('spirited horse') from pursuing their goals. It emphasizes resilience and the importance of maintaining one's motivation in the face of challenges.
In practice
In a motivational speech about overcoming obstacles, one might use this quote to inspire the audience to keep pushing forward.
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.
The yielding of the weak is the concession to fear.
My resolution, standing with the vast majority of Americans who know we can and must be safer, is to cede no ground to those who would convince us the path is too steep, or we too weak.
I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible and die like a soldier who never forgets what is due to his honour and that of his country, Victory or death.
Would you be willing to give your life to save the world if no one ever knew your name? If anonymity was the price you would have to pay for significance, would it be too great a price? To live a life of courage is not a guarantee of prestige or adulation. It only matters if you live and die fulfilling the mission you were born for.
One of the more serious temptations which stifles boldness and zeal is a defeatism, which turns us into querulous and disillusioned pessimists, sourpusses.
There are no brave men and cowardly men in the world, my son. There are only brave men. To be born, to live, to dieβthat takes courage enough in itself, and more than enough. We are all brave men and we are all afraid, and what the world calls a brave man, he too is brave and afraid like the all rest of us. Only he is brave for five minutes longer.
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