PLZ could someone explain this qutoe by mark twain. URGENT!?

Question

"What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know. It's what we know for sure that just ain't so."

Answer 1

Mark Twain was saying that ARROGANCE is worse than IGNORANCE. Sticking out your pigeon-chest and being wrong makes you closed-minded, while not knowing leaves the possibility of you still being open-minded.

Answer 2

Generally, Mr. Twain was talking about prejudices. The specific prejudice he was referring to was racism. When you accept a concept like racism as fact, trouble is inevitable. For modern day examples, you only have to look at the Irish troubles and the war in Iraq to see that we haven't come very far since Mr. Twain wrote Huckleberry Finn.

Answer 3

Here is a related Twain quote that might answer your question:

"It ain't the parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand."
— Mark Twain

A related concept is:
"Faith is believing what you know ain't so."
— Thomas A. Edison (1847 - 1931)

"Strange...a God who could make good children as easily as bad, yet preferred to make bad ones; who made them prize their bitter life, yet stingily cut it short; mouths Golden Rules and forgiveness multiplied seventy times seven and invented Hell; who mouths morals to other people and has none himself; who frowns upon crimes yet commits them all; who created man without invitation, then tries to shuffle the responsibility for man's acts upon man, instead of honorably placing it where it belongs, upon himself; and finally with altogether divine obtuseness, invites this poor, abused slave to worship him!"
— Mark Twain

Answer 4

What he's saying is when you are absolutely sure you are right about something and it ends up being wrong, you make yourself look like an idiot. Perhaps youve bragged about how you were right, given bad advice based on your incorrect assumption, whatever. When we don't know something, we usually strive to find the truth about it. But if we think we know about something and we are wrong without knowing, thats where problems arise.

Answer 5

It might help you to understand this quote if you also knew that Mark Twain said that "faith is believing something that you know ain't so."

Answer 6

He's referring to faith. When we think we know something, we don't question it, and therefore lose our ability to reason. If we don't fool ourselves into thinking we know, we can effectively analyze the situation. A good example of this is Agnosticism versus Faith. Agnostics refuse to believe or disbelieve in God, and therefore they cannot be incorrect or act irrationally. Believers, however, whether they are atheists or religious people blind themselves with their faith so much so that they can be a danger to society.

Answer 7

if you really dont know the solution then it wont really get u into trouble becuase its an honest mistake but if u really do know and u try to make it something its not such as lying about it then thats when u get into trouble

Answer 8

He is talking about false assumptions accepted as truth without a factual basis.

Answer 9

Tricky one! I think it's saying that when people get in trouble, it's not because of something they don't know. It is something that they do know, but it isn't the right thing to do. I hope I was of help!

Answer 10

It means that if we don't know something we take time to figure it out, but if we think we already know then we just dive in, and if we're wrong this is a disaster.