If you don't read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed. (Sometimes quoted as newspapers.)
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Twain notes a paradox where not reading leads to ignorance, but reading leads to misinformation.
- In plain terms
- If you skip the paper you know nothing; if you read it you know wrong things.
- What can you take from it?
- Treat news with skepticism.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How do you verify news?
- Is ignorance better than misguidance?
Another view
The quote may be hyperbolic regarding the accuracy of newspapers.
More from Mark Twain
You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.
Permalink to quote #196 When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at h…
Permalink to quote #194 Man has been here 32,000 years. That it took a hundred million years to prepare the world for him is proof that that is what it was done for. I suppose it is, …
Permalink to quote #197
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