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

—  Mark Twain

Last update Sept. 27, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "It ain't the parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it's the parts that I do understand." by Mark Twain?
Mark Twain photo
Mark Twain 637
American author and humorist 1835–1910

Related quotes

Mark Twain photo
Stephen King photo
James MacDonald photo

“I want to be a part of the grand plan. Being on board with God’s objectives means I understand that this is not about me.”

James MacDonald (1960) American pastor

Source: Always True (Moody, 2011), p. 91

Robert A. Heinlein photo
Terry Pratchett photo

“A European says: I can't understand this, what's wrong with me? An American says: I can't understand this, what's wrong with him?”

Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) English author

Interview, quoted in "Words from the Master" http://www.co.uk.lspace.org/books/apf/words-from-the-master.html in The Annotated Pratchett File http://www.co.uk.lspace.org/books/apf/index.html
General sources
Context: As for The Mapp... I suspect it'll never get a US publication. It seemed to frighten US publishers. They don't seem to understand it.
That seems to point up a significant difference between Europeans and Americans:
A European says: I can't understand this, what's wrong with me? An American says: I can't understand this, what's wrong with him?
I make no suggestion that one side or the other is right, but observation over many years leads me to believe it is true.

Elvis Costello photo

“I don't feel any form of music is beyond me in the sense of that I don't understand it or I don't have some love for some part of it.”

Elvis Costello (1954) English singer-songwriter

dig interview (2004)
Context: I don't feel any form of music is beyond me in the sense of that I don't understand it or I don't have some love for some part of it. And if there's something in it that I can respond to, then there's something that I might be able to use as a composer. There are records of mine that have had smaller audiences and have provoked really drastic responses from people — particularly from critics — who maybe don't have quite enough time to live with the record or accept that a piece has its own integrity.

Natalie Wynn photo
Julia Quinn photo
Albert Einstein photo

“If I can't picture it, I can't understand it.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

Attributed to Einstein by physicist John Archibald Wheeler in John Horgan's article "Profile: Physicist John A. Wheeler, Questioning the 'It from Bit'". Scientific American, pp. 36-37, June 1991. Reprinted here http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=pioneering-physicist-john-wheeler-dies after Wheeler's death.
Attributed in posthumous publications

Related topics