what does mark twain mean?
351118
It was a term used on the riverboats and may still be used today they had a rope or piece of twine marked off at certian lenghts and they would lower it over the side and "Mark Twain" to see how deep the river was
1169499
First off, it was not a book, it was a short short.  The story was original published in a newspaper that Twain was working for a the time.  The actual name of the story was "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County".\nThere is a link to a copy of the story below
94508
Well the leading expert on word and phrase orgins, says it probably really means to cruelly swing a cat by the tail.\n\n>>\n There are two theories about "not enough room to swing a cat," neither of them very cheerful. One is that the phrase refers to the "cat o'nine tails," a nine-thonged whip used in the days of square-rigged ships to discipline unruly sailors. This "cat" got its name from the fact that the welts it left on a sailor's back looked like enormous cat scratches. Most such whippings took place on the open deck, both as an example to the rest of the crew and because in the cramped quarters belowdecks there was "not enough room to swing a cat."\n\nThe other, less cat-friendly theory is that the phrase refers to literally swinging a cat around by its tail. This version seems to have quite a bit more evidence in its favor, the phrase having come into use in the mid-17th century and being used with clear reference to actual cats ever since, including in Charles Dickens' "David Copperfield." \n>>\n\nMark Twain uses the phrase in the kitty sense in his wonderful book "Roughing It":\n\n>>\nThe floor room unoccupied was not extensive. \nOne might swing a cat in it, perhaps, but not a long cat.\n>>\n\nAccording to the Oxford English Dictionary:\n>>\n1771 SMOLLETT Humph. Cl. II. 8 June, At London, I am pent up in frowzy lodgings, where there is not room enough to swing a cat.\n\n1665 Medela Pestil. 57 They had not space enough (according to the vulgar saying) to swing a Cat in.\n\n1850 DICKENS David Copperfield xxxv, Mrs. Crupp had indignantly assured him that there wasn't room to swing a cat there; but, as Mr. Dick just observed to me,..‘You know, Trotwood, I don't want to swing a cat. I never do swing a cat.’\n>>
483960
It is one of those sayings whose exact origins is unknown, it obviously refers to things kept secret or hidden. In the past it may actually have had something to do with someone who had died under mysterious circumstances. It was brought into literary use by Thackeray in 1845.
429046
It's two words: totus elatus.\n\nElatus is the participle of the verb effero, which can mean to carry out or away, or to raise up.\nTotus means whole, complete, entire, all.\n\nSo the phrase, depending on context, could mean "completely raised up"  or "entirely carried away," or "entirely elevated," or a few other things, mostly in the same vein.
950217
Read "The Mysterious Stranger" by Mark Twain. It has the answer.
93477
"Next the statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting the blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception."...The Mysterious Stranger\n\n-Mark Twain
395287
What is a Patriot? A lot of people have definitions for what a patriot is. \n\nI think Mark Twain's is best:\n"Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it."\n\nTo love your country, and support your country's government are very different things. \n\nThis is the difference between a GOVERNMENT and a COUNTRY. America the country is many things, it is Johnny Cash, it is Chevy Trucks, it is Apple Pie, it is Baseball, it is Hollywood it is the people who live here. \n\nBut to align yourself with every stance the government makes, on every policy... is not being a patriot, its being a cow.
421557
It means someone who is self-righteous and smug.\n\nThe phrase originates from the nursery tale "The History of Goody Two-Shoes"
757829
I am reminded of Mark Twain's statements: "Its not the parts of the Bible I don't understand that bother me, its the parts I do."\n\nOften the Bible is so simple that we need help to misunderstand it.
868912
the TRUE word of the Great Spirit, he who is known by a thousand names and is yet unnamable. unconditional love for all, and that all are brothers and must be treated with respect, the two legged, the four legged, the finned, the feathered, the tree people, the rock people........mitakuye oyasin (all my relations)
175709
You really need more of the poem in order to really explain the line.\n\nI'm going to guess that you're quoting William Wordsworth, and say that it basically means that the child grows into a man.  Generally a person keeps a similar personality throughout most of their life, especially once they've become a teenager.  What Wordsworth was saying in that poem is that the person he was as a child still exist within him now that he is fully grown, and will still be there when he is older.  It's one of those whole your past affects your present affects your future things.
889258
I believe it to mean a person of class...morality, values etc.\nYou can't build a mahognany hutch out of pine!!
247056
read it. If you ever read all M Twain wrote,you'll enjoy it and have an improved sense of humor.Believe it or not.
512115
There are a ton of websites that have information on Twain, also google his real name "Samuel Langhorne Clemens." The websites will give you places that you could actually go to find books. He is one of this country's treasures, and there has been a lot of literary analysis and criticism of  his works. Any library would have some of his works and books and articles by people who have analyzed his work.
983375
It's sometimes a greeting, or sometimes a description of a person who's friendly, likeable and genial.\n\ndefinition:\nhttp://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hail-fellow-well-met\n\nSome quotes from literature:\n\nAnd at first he sings small, and is hail-fellow-well-met with Sheamus -- that's James of the Glens, my chieftain's agent.\nKidnapped by Stevenson, Robert Louis View in context\nDown there they talk of the heavenly King - and that is right - but then they go right on speaking as if this was a republic and everybody was on a dead level with everybody else, and privileged to fling his arms around anybody he comes across, and be hail-fellow-well-met with all the elect, from the highest down.\nCaptain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven by Twain, Mark \n\norigin:\nhttp://archives.stupidquestion.net/sq71904.html
472743
"Twain originally wanted to be a serious artist; his turn toward humor damaged his artistic promise: ". . . it was in consequence of pursuing it, we have divined, that he was arrested in his moral and aesthetic development" (Brooks 13)."\n\nThe only reference to arrested I could find in regards to Mark Twain... in this case it means stopped, not taken to jail. \n\nhttp://www.uncp.edu/home/canada/work/allam/18661913/lit/twain.htm