“If you want me to give you a two-hour presentation, I am ready today. If you want only a five-minute speech, it will take me two weeks to prepare.”

—  Mark Twain

Last update Sept. 28, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "If you want me to give you a two-hour presentation, I am ready today. If you want only a five-minute speech, it will ta…" by Mark Twain?
Mark Twain photo
Mark Twain 637
American author and humorist 1835–1910

Related quotes

Woodrow Wilson photo

“If I am to speak ten minutes, I need a week for preparation; if fifteen minutes, three days; if half an hour, two days; if an hour, I am ready now.”

Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) American politician, 28th president of the United States (in office from 1913 to 1921)

As quoted in The Wilson Era; Years of War and After, 1917–1923 (1946) by Josephus Daniels, p. 624. Referenced in "Bartleby.com" http://www.bartleby.com/73/1288.html
1920s and later

“Oh, Life, I am yours. Whatever it is you want of me, I am ready to give.”

William Steig (1907–2003) American cartoonist, children's illustrator and writer

Source: Dominic

Mark Twain photo

“It usually takes me two or three days to prepare an impromptu speech.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

Variant: It usually takes more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.

Nicholas Sparks photo

“Two weeks together, that’s all it took, two weeks for me to fall in love with you.”

Nicholas Sparks book Dear John

Source: Dear John

George S. Patton photo

“Have taken Trier with two divisions. What do you want me to do? Give it back?”

George S. Patton (1885–1945) United States Army general

Reply to a message from General Dwight Eisenhower to bypass the German city of Trier because it would take four divisions to capture it (2 March 1945), as quoted in the Introduction to War as I Knew it (1947) by George Smith Patton, Jr., with Paul Donal Harkins, p. 20

Yanis Varoufakis photo

“…negotiations will be an exercise in futility and frustration. Barnier’s two-phase negotiation announcement amounts to a rejection of the principle of … negotiation. He is, effectively, saying to you: First you give me everything I am asking for unconditionally (Phase 1) and only then will I hear what you want”

Yanis Varoufakis (1961) Greek-Australian political economist and author, Greek finance minister

Phase 2
Source: My message to Theresa May: listen and learn from our Greek tragedy http://www.standard.co.uk/comment/comment/my-message-to-theresa-may-listen-and-learn-from-our-greek-tragedy-a3536551.html, The Evening Standard 12 May 2017

Rajneesh photo

“If you really want to know who I am, you have to be as absolutely empty as I am. Then two mirrors will be facing each other, and only emptiness will be mirrored. Infinite emptiness will be mirrored: two mirrors facing each other. But if you have some idea, then you will see your own idea in me.”

Rajneesh (1931–1990) Godman and leader of the Rajneesh movement

Come Follow To You, Vol. 2, Chapter 4; in Autobiography of a Spiritually Incorrect Mystic (2000), Part 2.

Salvador Dalí photo

“Give me two hours a day of activity, and I'll take the other twenty-two in dreams.”

Salvador Dalí (1904–1989) Spanish artist

Mon Dernier soupir (My Last Sigh, 1983)

Luis Buñuel photo

“Give me two hours a day of activity, and I'll take the other twenty-two in dreams.”

Luis Buñuel (1900–1983) film director

Mon Dernier soupir (My Last Sigh, 1983)

André Derain photo

“I have found a boat, small with two sails, that would make me happy. Unfortunately, I need one hundred francs.... and I haven't got it! If you want, I could give you two canvases which you could sell, just to make you some many and you could give me the hundred francs... Kahnweiler [Paris' art-dealer] is the only one who gives me money, and just what we need to live on.”

André Derain (1880–1954) French painter and engraver

Quote from Derain's letter, 23 August 1909 to Maurice de Vlaminck, in Lettres à Vlaminck, p. 205; as cited and translated in 'Report: André Derain's 'Trees by a Lake', by F. Whitlum-Cooper and Cleo Nisse http://courtauld.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Report-Derain-by-F-Whitlum-Cooper-and-Cleo-Nisse.compressed.pdf, p. 10 - note 8

Related topics