Weather is a literary specialty, and no untrained hand can turn out a good article on it
It is a time when one’s spirit is subdued and sad, one knows not why; when the past seems a storm-swept desolation, life a vanity and a burden, and the future but a way to death. It is a time when one is filled with vague longings; when one dreams of flight to peaceful islands in the remote solitudes of the sea, or folds his hands and says, What is the use of struggling, and toiling and worrying any more? let us give it all up.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects a deep sense of melancholy and existential questioning about life and its struggles.
Mark Twain captures the essence of human despair and the feelings that accompany moments of profound sadness. He highlights a state of mind where one feels overwhelmed by life's challenges, leading to a longing for escape and introspection about the purpose of struggle. This sentiment resonates with anyone who has faced difficult times, expressing a universal battle with feelings of futility and the search for solace.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational speech about overcoming adversity, you could use this quote to illustrate the common feeling of being overwhelmed by life's challenges.
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.
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.
Similar quotes
Dreaming is a philogenetically older mode of thought.
I have always struggled, with the sole intention of ceasing to struggle. Result: zero.
We are not to preach the doing of good things; good deeds are not to be preached, they are to be performed.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.
I would like to see anyone, prophet, king or God, convince a thousand cats to do the same thing at the same time.
Generalized intelligence and mental alertness are the most powerful enemies of dictatorship and at the same time the basic conditions of effective democracy.