Intellectual food is like any other; it is pleasanter and more beneficial to take it with a spoon than with a shovel.
 Mark Twain, A Tramp Abroad (1880). copy citation

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Author Mark Twain
Source A Tramp Abroad
Topic food
Date 1880
Language English
Reference
Note
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/119/119-h/119-h.htm

Context

“or require the speaker to deliver them in sections, with intermissions for refreshments. To wholly do away with them would be best, for ideas are more easily received and digested when they come one at a time than when they come in bulk. Intellectual food is like any other; it is pleasanter and more beneficial to take it with a spoon than with a shovel. Sixthly, I would require a speaker to stop when he is done, and not hang a string of those useless “haven sind gewesen gehabt haben geworden seins” to the end of his oration. This sort of gewgaws undignify a speech, instead of adding a grace.” source