Weather is a literary specialty, and no untrained hand can turn out a good article on it
Mark TwainRead
The New York papers have long known that no large question is ever really settled until I have been consulted.
Interpretation
This quote humorously suggests that major issues remain unresolved until Mark Twain weighs in on them.
Mark Twain cleverly highlights the inflated sense of self-importance that some individuals may have regarding their opinions on significant matters. By stating that large questions are not settled until he is consulted, Twain employs humor to criticize the human tendency to believe that one's perspective is essential in resolving complex issues.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of perspectives, you could use this quote to lighten the mood.
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.
You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer.
Don't be afraid of making an ass of yourself. I do it all the time and look what I got.
LADY STUTFIELD I adore silent men. MRS ALLONBY Oh, Ernest isn't silent. He talks the whole time. But he has got no conversation. What he talks about I don't know. I haven't listened to him for years.
I bought a cactus. A week later it died. And I got depressed, because I thought, Damn. I am less nurturing than a desert.
That evening I rode downtown on an unaccountably empty bus, sitting in the last row. At the front I saw a thin cloud of smoke rising around the driverβs head. βHey, bus driver,β I said. βCan I smoke?β βMay I,β said the bus driver. βI love you,β I said.
It should seem that it is easier to square the circle than to get round a mathematician.
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