“ The average man is profoundly ignorant of countries that lie remote from his own. ”
Mark Twain, Following the Equator (1897). copy citation
| Author | Mark Twain |
|---|---|
| Source | Following the Equator |
| Topic | lie average |
| Date | 1897 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2895/2895-h/2895-h.htm |
Context
“Ten years later there is a twenty-line obituary in the London papers, and the reader is paralyzed by the splendors of a career which he is not sure that he had ever heard of before. But meanwhile he has learned all about the continental princelets and dukelets.
The average man is profoundly ignorant of countries that lie remote from his own. When they are mentioned in his presence one or two facts and maybe a couple of names rise like torches in his mind, lighting up an inch or two of it and leaving the rest all dark. The mention of Egypt suggests some Biblical facts and the Pyramids-nothing more.”
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