Weather is a literary specialty, and no untrained hand can turn out a good article on it
Mark TwainRead
Nothing spoils a good story like the arrival of an eyewitness.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that the truth can often ruin a well-crafted narrative.
Mark Twain humorously points out that a compelling story can lose its charm when confronted with factual accuracy or real-life observation. Eyewitness accounts can bring in harsh truths that disrupt the imaginative power of storytelling, emphasizing the creative liberties often taken in narratives.
In practice
During a storytelling contest, one can use this quote to highlight the importance of imagination over factual accuracy.
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.
Pirate Captain Jim "Walk the plank," says Pirate Jim "But Captain Jim, I cannot swim." "Then you must steer us through the gale." "But Captain Jim, I cannot sail." "Then down with the galley slaves you go." "But Captain Jim, I cannot row." "Then you must be the pirate's clerk." "But Captain Jim, I cannot work.
I thought such awful thoughts that I cannot even say them out loud because they would make Jesus want to drink gin straight out of the cat dish.
I have been attacked by Rush Limbaugh on the air, an experience somewhat akin to being gummed by a newt. It doesn't actually hurt, but it leaves you with slimy stuff on your ankle.
ARMOR, n. The kind of clothing worn by a man whose tailor is a blacksmith.
That's what's so stupid about the whole magic thing, you know. You spend twenty years learning the spell that makes nude virgins appear in your bedroom, and then you're so poisoned by quicksilver fumes and half-blind from reading old grimoires that you can't remember what happens next.
Second to agriculture, humbug is the biggest industry of our age.
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