“Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture they do not understand, but the passages that bother me are those I do understand.”

—  Mark Twain

Last update Sept. 27, 2023. History

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Mark Twain637
American author and humorist 1835–1910

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“It ain't the parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it's the parts that I do understand.”

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“When you are reading God’s Word, it is not the obscure passages that bind you but what you understand, and with that you comply at once. If you understood only one single passage in all of Holy Scripture, well, then you must do that first of all, but you do not first have to sit down and ponder the obscure passages.”

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“People have the right to call themselves whatever they like. That doesn't bother me. It's other people doing the calling that bothers me.”

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Context: Do not let yourself be bothered by the inconsequential. One has only so much time in this world, so devote it to the work and the people most important to you, to those you love and things that matter. One can waste half a lifetime with people one doesn't really like, or doing things when one would be better off somewhere else.

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“All the passages in the Holy Scriptures that mention assistance are they that do away with "free-will", and these are countless…For grace is needed, and the help of grace is given, because "free-will" can do nothing.”

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“If those promises do not get fulfilled, it will make future passage of anything much more difficult. BIF will look like a cakewalk”

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“The feminists took me as a role model, as a mother. It bothers me. I am not interested in being a mother. I am still a girl trying to understand myself.”

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“I am not bothered by the fact that I am not understood. I am bothered when I do not know others.”

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Source: The Analects, Chapter I

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“Those who know, do. Those that understand, teach.”

Aristotle (-384–-321 BC) Classical Greek philosopher, student of Plato and founder of Western philosophy

This and many similar quotes with the same general meaning are misattributed to Aristotle as a result of Twitter attribution decay. The original source of the quote remains anonymous. The oldest reference resides in the works of George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman (1903): "Maxims for Revolutionists", where he claims that “He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches.”. However, the related quote, "Those who can, do. Those who understand, teach" likely originates from Lee Shulman in his explanation of Aristotlean views on professional mastery: Source: Shulman, L. S. (1986). Those who understand: Knowledge growth in teaching. Educational Researcher, 15(2), 4 - 14. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1175860
Misattributed
Variant: Those who can, do, those who cannot, teach.

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