Weather is a literary specialty, and no untrained hand can turn out a good article on it
Mark TwainRead
He was a solemn, unsmiling, sanctimonious old iceberg who looked like he was waiting for a vacancy in the Trinity.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote humorously describes a person as overly serious and stiff, comparing him to an iceberg.
Mark Twain uses vivid imagery to convey the character of a person who is excessively solemn and moralizing, likening him to an icebergβcold and unyielding. The comparison suggests that this individual lacks warmth and humor, embodying a rigid, perhaps self-righteous attitude that makes him seem out of place and waiting for something that signifies a higher status, as implied by the reference to a vacancy in the Trinity.
Themes
SolemnHumorIcebergSeriousnessMorality
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of humor in leadership.
More from Mark Twain
All quotes βThe 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
To me Psycho was a big comedy. Had to be.
Alfred HitchcockRead
Do I perform sometimes in a manic style? Yes. Am I manic all the time? No. Do I get sad? Oh yeah. Does it hit me hard? Oh yeah.
Robin WilliamsRead
I think someone should design exercise machines that reward people with sex at the end of their workouts, because people will perform superhuman feats for even the faint hope of that.
Tina FeyRead
I have had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn't it.
Groucho MarxRead
It was impossible to get a conversation going, everybody was talking too much.
Yogi BerraRead
All these jokes have been pre-approved as funny by me.
Mitch HedbergRead