Weather is a literary specialty, and no untrained hand can turn out a good article on it
Mark TwainRead
Well - Patriotism has its laws. And it also is a perfectly definite one, there are not vaguenesses about it. It commands that the brother over the border shall be sharply watched and brought to book every time he does us a hurt or offends us with an insult.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the strict and often unforgiving nature of patriotism, particularly in how it influences perceptions of loyalty and offense.
Mark Twain's quote reflects the concept of patriotism as a rigid doctrine that demands vigilance and retribution against perceived wrongs from neighboring nations or groups. It suggests that true patriotism requires not just loyalty but also a readiness to defend one's country against any offense, revealing the often contentious dynamics that come with national identity and relationships between nations. Twain's words provoke thought about the balance between love for one's country and the potential for hostility towards others.
Themes
PatriotismLoyaltyOffenseBrotherhoodRetribution
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion on national identity, one might reference this quote to illustrate the complexities of feeling loyalty and brotherhood while facing insult from other nations.
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.
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
This empire, unlike any other in the history of the world, has been built primarily through economic manipulation, through cheating, through fraud, through seducing people into our way of life, through the economic hit men. I was very much a part of that.
John PerkinsRead
Dear me, I believe I am becoming a god. An emperor ought at least to die on his feet.
VespasianRead
It can hardly be denied that such a demand quite arbitrarily limits the facts which are to be admitted as possible causes of the events which occur in the real world.
Friedrich August Von HayekRead
The banyan tree does not mean awakening, nor does the hill, nor the saint, nor the European couple. The lotus is a symbol of regeneration.
Swami VivekanandaRead
Old ideas can sometimes use new buildings. New ideas must use old buildings.
Jane JacobsRead
Botvinnik tried to take the mystery out of Chess, always relating it to situations in ordinary life. He used to call chess a typical inexact problem similar to those which people are always having to solve in everyday life.
Garry KasparovRead