Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
The speaker is about to face a large, critical audience for the first time.
In plain terms
He will present before 4,000 Boston critics.
What can you take from it?
Prepare thoroughly when confronting a demanding audience.

Where it applies

  • lecture debut
  • book launch

Putting it to work

  • rehearsing speech
  • anticipating questions

Questions to consider

  • How does audience size affect confidence?

Another view

The number may be exaggerated for effect.

More from Samuel Langhorne Clemens

  1. Soap and education are not as sudden as a massacre, but they are more deadly in the long run.

    Permalink to quote #8
  2. All men have heard of the Mormon Bible, but few except the 'elect' have seen it, or, at least, taken the trouble to read it. I brought away a copy from Salt La…

    Permalink to quote #10
  3. I haven't a particle of confidence in a man who has no redeeming petty vices.

    Permalink to quote #7

Related quotes

  1. Does there, I wonder, exist a being who has read all, or approximately all, that the person of average culture is supposed to have read, and that not to have r…

    Arnold BennettArnold Bennett quote #1
  2. By and large, horror fiction is the most difficult to domesticate because part of the point is that it's one step ahead - or behind - everybody else's taste. A…

    Clive BarkerClive Barker quote #1
  3. Premiere communion de jeunes filles chlorotiques par un temps de neige.

    Alphonse AllaisAlphonse Allais quote #1