“A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.”
One of my favorite quotes of all time- Twain has an admirable knack for delivering one-liners which simultaneously illustrate his point, and give you something to chuckle over.
“A round man cannot be expected to fit in a square hole right away.
He must have time to modify his shape.”
This demonstrates has many layers Twain can pack into a simple-seeming statement. At face value it says that no one can change right away. However he reverses the common SQUARE peg in ROUND hole- why? We can see it as a rotund man needs to loose weight to fit through a doorway- it’s a commentary on weight. Also geometrically we see a circle being simple, without angles, while a square is more complex, with many sides and angles- a metaphor for building character. Ok, going along with the geometrical line of thinking (and ignoring that a circle actually has infinite sides), we can see a circle as only being “one-sided”, while a square has many sides- it takes people a time to be open-minded and see many “sides” of an issue. etc...
“Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored
than to anything on which it is poured.”
A good lesson. When angry, many people frequently do things which they later regret, and you then only have your anger and yourself to blame. And also it’s hella unhealthy to be angry and stressed.
“Any emotion, if it is sincere, is involuntary.”
When I think of this quote I think of unbridled passion (which sadly seems to be so rare). It is the kind of passion which is spontaneous and absolute, honest and unafraid! Any passion that can be restrained and tempered is, by my thinking, not passion at all. Everyone should be able to love passionately.
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