Mrs. LaMarche--Literature

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MARK TWAIN'S QUOTES--SUGGESTED MEANINGS & INFERENCES
Compare these to your own worksheet and on a scale of 1-5 determine how well you knew what 
Twain was meaning and inferring.

Life should begin with age and its privileges and accumulation, and end with youth and its capacity to 
splendidly enjoy such advantages.
Meaning: We should age backward.
Inference:  When you are older, you can appreciate what you have.  It is wasted on youth.

April Fools Day is the day upon which we are reminded of what we are on the other three hundred 
and sixty-four.
Meaning:  On April First we celebrate what we are—Fools.
Inference:  People are fools.

If the man doesn’t’ believe as we do, we say is a crank, and that settles it.  I mean, it does nowadays, 
because now we can’t burn him.
Meaning: When we don’t agree with someone, we call him names, but wish we could do more to hurt 
him.
Inference:  Society today acts more civilized, but deep down, we are not.

You can find in a text whatever you bring, if you will stand between it and the mirror of your 
imagination.
Meaning:  While reading, you will get more out of it if you think and ask question while reading.
Inference:  If you are not putting yourself into the book, you get nothing out of it.

I must have a prodigious quantity of mind; it takes me as much as a week, sometimes, to make it up.
Meaning: My mind is so large and full of important information, that I can’t make a decision.  
Inference:  Just because someone is smart, doesn’t mean they are well off or perfect.  Too much 
information can leave you with no opinion.

There are people who can do all fine and heroic things but one-keep from telling their happiness to 
the unhappy.
Meaning:  After people do good deeds, they always brag to others about what they did.
Inference:  People brag about what they do, and that takes away from the good they tried to do.

Man will do many things to get himself loved, he will do all things to get himself envied.
Meaning:  Man tries hard to be loved by others, but will try harder to to be better than others.
Inference: It is more important to man to have someone want something he has  or be better than 
others than to be loved by others.

We have not the reverent feeling for the rainbow that a savage has, because we know how it is made.  
We have lost as much as we gained by prying into that matter.
Meaning: Since we know the science behind what makes the rainbow, it is no longer as wonderful.
Inference:  Perhaps we should slow down with some of the science we are able to do and just enjoy 
the world.

Loyalty to petrified opinions never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul in this world-and never 
will.
Meaning: When someone believes something to be true, and is unwilling to listen to new ideas—
change will never happen.  Twain was speaking of slavery.  
Inference:  We should listen to the ideas of others.  It is ok to change our own opinions sometimes.

Love seems the swiftest, but it is the slowest of all growths.   No man or woman really knows what 
perfect love is until they have been married a quarter of a century.
Meaning:  We think we fall in love quickly, yet it takes 25 years to know if we are really in love.
Inference:  We learn to love over time. —by really understanding who someone else is.

Truth is mighty and will prevail.  There is nothing wrong with this, except that it ain’t so.
Meaning:  Telling the truth is impressive and will overcome all is what we are taught, but it never 
happens	
Inference:  Everybody lies.

It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things:  
freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them.
Meaning:  God and our country have given us the ability to say and do anything we want along with 
carefulness of never speaking or acting freely.
Inference:  People don’t say or think for themselves.  They are mostly followers or do and say what 
other people expect them to do.

When angry, count to four; when very angry, swear.
Meaning:  When you’re mad just give it time, but when really mad, yell—curse—let everyone know.
Inference:  People should try to act refined but there are times when one just has to let go.

October.  This is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks.  The others are July, 
January, September, April, November, ay, March, June, December, August, and February.
Meaning:  It is always dangerous to consider in stocks. 
Inference:  If you want to lose money, invest in stocks.

There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist, except an old optimist.
Meaning:  No one wants to see a child who always expects the worst, but an older person who always 
expects the best is even more gloomy.
Inference:  Once a person is old, they should already know not to be an idealist, since everything 
doesn’t work out for the best.

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Mrs. LaMarche--Literature

8th Grade