--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Every one knew he could foretell wars and…" description: "\"Every one knew he could foretell wars and famines, though that was not so hard, for there was always a war, and generally a famine somewhere.\" — Mark T..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bb6/mark-twain-22_famine_every-one-knew-he-could-foretell-wars-an_2941577.png" --- # Every one knew he could foretell wars and famines, though… ![“Every one knew he could foretell wars and famines, though that was not so hard, for there was always a war, and generally a famine somewhere.” quote by Mark Twain](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bb6/mark-twain-22_famine_every-one-knew-he-could-foretell-wars-an_2941577.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bb6/mark-twain-22_famine_every-one-knew-he-could-foretell-wars-an_2941577.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bb6/mark-twain-22_famine_every-one-knew-he-could-foretell-wars-an_2941577.png) > “Every one knew he could foretell wars and famines, though that was not so hard, for there was always a war, and generally a famine somewhere.” [Mark Twain](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mark-twain/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Predicting conflict is easy because war and famine are constant human hardships. **In simple terms:** War and famine are always present. Key Takeaway Stay aware of recurring hardships. Themes history human nature conflict Mood cautious reflective Type observational historical When to use this quote - political analysis - economic planning - humanitarian aid Key Concepts predictive insight inevitability Questions to Reflect On - How do societies break cycles of conflict? - Can peace be sustained? A Different Perspective Assumes all societies face constant war or famine. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Famine](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/famine/) [War](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/war/) ## Related quotes > [But I felt certain that if the world would stop indulging wars and famines and other perils, it would be possible for human beings…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-irving/but-i-felt-certain-that-if-the-world-would-stop-indulging-wars-and/) [John Irving](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-irving/) > [Famines are political. We all know that the immediate response to a famine must be food, aid, and shelter, but we should also look…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/amber-rudd/famines-are-political-we-all-know-that-the-immediate-response-to-a/) [Amber Rudd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/amber-rudd/) > [People talk about doom-laden scenarios happening in the future: they are happening in Africa now. You can see it perfectly clearly. Periodic famines are…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-attenborough/people-talk-about-doom-laden-scenarios-happening-in-the-future-they/) [David Attenborough](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-attenborough/) > [ One of the great famines in human history took place during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. \[At the same time\] Western journalists were reporting how… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-friedman/one-of-the-great-famines-in-human-history-took-place-during-the/) [George Friedman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-friedman/) > [You can’t prevent undernourishment so easily, but famines you can stop with half an effort. Then the question was why don’t the governments stop…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/amartya-sen/you-can-t-prevent-undernourishment-so-easily-but-famines-you-can-stop/) [Amartya Sen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/amartya-sen/) > [“The New Testament speaks of “a great famine all over the world” that took place in the reign of emperor Claudius (Acts 11:27-29). Josephus…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/brian-godawa/the-new-testament-speaks-of-a-great-famine-all-over-the-world-that/) [Brian Godawa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/brian-godawa/) > [I attempted to see famines as broad "economic" problems (concentrating on how people can buy food, or otherwise get entitled to it), rather than…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/amartya-sen/i-attempted-to-see-famines-as-broad-economic-problems-concentrating/) [Amartya Sen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/amartya-sen/) > [We traditionally in this world didn't have enough calories to feed all of us and had huge famines, not just in Africa, but had…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/juan-enriquez/we-traditionally-in-this-world-didn-t-have-enough-calories-to-feed/) [Juan Enriquez](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/juan-enriquez/) > [Famines are easy to prevent if there is a serious effort to do so, and a democratic government, facing elections and criticisms from opposition…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/amartya-sen/famines-are-easy-to-prevent-if-there-is-a-serious-effort-to-do-so-and/) [Amartya Sen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/amartya-sen/) > [“Famines are not natural disasters. Famines are man-made. Droughts happen from time to time. But in this century, for any drought to metastasize into…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jeffrey-gettleman/famines-are-not-natural-disasters-famines-are-man-made-droughts/) [Jeffrey Gettleman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jeffrey-gettleman/) > [If the government is vulnerable to public opinion, then famines are a dreadfully bad thing to have. You can’t win many elections after a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/amartya-sen/if-the-government-is-vulnerable-to-public-opinion-then-famines-are-a/) [Amartya Sen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/amartya-sen/) > [The redundant population, necessarily occasioned by the prevalence of early marriages, must be repressed by occasional famines, and by the custom of exposing children,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-malthus/the-redundant-population-necessarily-occasioned-by-the-prevalence-of/) [Thomas Malthus](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-malthus/) > [After The Bomb we developed a fairly good system for moving food around and have avoided the kind of massive famines that attract the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-r-ehrlich/after-the-bomb-we-developed-a-fairly-good-system-for-moving-food/) [Paul R. Ehrlich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-r-ehrlich/) > [The experience of Somalia shows that famine in the late 20th century is not a consequence of a shortage of food. On the contrary,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michel-chossudovsky/the-experience-of-somalia-shows-that-famine-in-the-late-20th-century/) [Michel Chossudovsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michel-chossudovsky/) > [Famines occur under a colonial administration, like the British Raj in India or for that matter in Ireland, or under military dictators in one…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/amartya-sen/famines-occur-under-a-colonial-administration-like-the-british-raj-in/) [Amartya Sen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/amartya-sen/) ## More by Mark Twain > [Sing like no one's listening, love like you've never been hurt, dance like nobody's watching, and live like its heaven on earth.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mark-twain/sing-like-no-one-s-listening-love-like-you-ve-never-been-hurt-dance/) [Mark Twain](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mark-twain/) > [If you had made the acquiring of ignorance the study of your life, you could not have graduated with higher honor than you could…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mark-twain/if-you-had-made-the-acquiring-of-ignorance-the-study-of-your-life-you/) [Mark Twain](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mark-twain/) > [“The Creator sat upon the throne, thinking. Behind him stretched the illimitable continent of heaven, steeped in a glory of light and color; before…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mark-twain/the-creator-sat-upon-the-throne-thinking-behind-him-stretched-the/) [Mark Twain](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mark-twain/) > [It's easy to quit smoking. I've done it hundreds of times.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mark-twain/it-s-easy-to-quit-smoking-i-ve-done-it-hundreds-of-times/) [Mark Twain](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mark-twain/) > [“It is never wrong to do the right thing.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mark-twain/it-is-never-wrong-to-do-the-right-thing/) [Mark Twain](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mark-twain/) > [A man accustomed to American food and American domestic cookery would not starve to death suddenly in Europe, but I think he would gradually…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mark-twain/a-man-accustomed-to-american-food-and-american-domestic-cookery-would/) [Mark Twain](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mark-twain/) > [There is nothing training can't cannot do. Nothing is above its reach.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mark-twain/there-is-nothing-training-can-t-cannot-do-nothing-is-above-its-reach/) [Mark Twain](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mark-twain/) > [I never write Metropolis for seven cents because I can get the same price for city. I never write policeman because I can get…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mark-twain/i-never-write-metropolis-for-seven-cents-because-i-can-get-the-same/) [Mark Twain](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mark-twain/) > [The higher animals get their teeth without pain or inconvenience. Man gets his through months and months of cruel torture; he will never get…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mark-twain/the-higher-animals-get-their-teeth-without-pain-or-inconvenience-man/) [Mark Twain](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mark-twain/) > [“As far as I can see, Italy, for fifteen hundred years, has turned all her energies, all her finances, and all her industry to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mark-twain/as-far-as-i-can-see-italy-for-fifteen-hundred-years-has-turned-all/) [Mark Twain](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mark-twain/) > [Begin with the determination to succeed and the work is half done already.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mark-twain/begin-with-the-determination-to-succeed-and-the-work-is-half-done/) [Mark Twain](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mark-twain/) > [Many public-school children seem to know only two dates—1492 and 4th of July; and as a rule they don't know what happened on either…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mark-twain/many-public-school-children-seem-to-know-only-two-dates-1492-and-4th/) [Mark Twain](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mark-twain/) > [If we could imagine such a man, that is a man who could invent the fly and send him out on his mission and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mark-twain/if-we-could-imagine-such-a-man-that-is-a-man-who-could-invent-the-fly/) [Mark Twain](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mark-twain/) > [You perceive, now, that these things are all impossible except in a dream. You perceive that they are pure and puerile insanities, the silly…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mark-twain/you-perceive-now-that-these-things-are-all-impossible-except-in-a/) [Mark Twain](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mark-twain/) > [Lord save us all from a hope tree that has lost the faculty of putting out blossoms.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mark-twain/lord-save-us-all-from-a-hope-tree-that-has-lost-the-faculty-of/) [Mark Twain](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mark-twain/) [Explore all 3,277 Mark Twain quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mark-twain/) ## More Famine quotes > [I felt cheated by the way grown-ups told me that the future of the world was bleak when I became a teenager in the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/matt-ridley/i-felt-cheated-by-the-way-grown-ups-told-me-that-the-future-of-the/) [Matt Ridley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/matt-ridley/) > [I read the other day an account of a meeting between John Knox and John Calvin. Imagine a dialogue between a pestilence and a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-green-ingersoll/i-read-the-other-day-an-account-of-a-meeting-between-john-knox-and/) [Robert Green Ingersoll](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-green-ingersoll/) > [With war and famine and flood and special effects films, when you do somebody under duress, you have to be really be inventive and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/peter-weir/with-war-and-famine-and-flood-and-special-effects-films-when-you-do/) [Peter Weir](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/peter-weir/) > [Why do some die and some live? The answer was clearly, that on the whole the best fitted live. From the effects of disease…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alfred-russel-wallace/why-do-some-die-and-some-live-the-answer-was-clearly-that-on-the/) [Alfred Russel Wallace](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alfred-russel-wallace/) > [Calamity, war, famine, plague, death, adversity, disease, injury do not necessarily produce repentance. We may become better in a calamity but it does not…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/fulton-j-sheen/calamity-war-famine-plague-death-adversity-disease-injury-do-not/) [Fulton J. Sheen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/fulton-j-sheen/) > [Tolkien can say that Aragorn became king and reigned for a hundred years, and he was wise and good. But Tolkien doesn’t ask the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-r-r-martin-2/tolkien-can-say-that-aragorn-became-king-and-reigned-for-a-hundred/) [George R. R. Martin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-r-r-martin-2/) > [A huge famine hit North Korea in the mid-1990s. Ultimately, more than a million North Koreans died during the famine, and many only survived…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lee-hyeon-seo/a-huge-famine-hit-north-korea-in-the-mid-1990s-ultimately-more-than-a/) [Lee Hyeon-seo](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lee-hyeon-seo/) > [Death and Famine and War and Pollution continued biking towards Tadfield. And Grievous Bodily Harm, Cruelty To Animals, Things Not Working Properly Even After…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/neil-gaiman/death-and-famine-and-war-and-pollution-continued-biking-towards/) [Neil Gaiman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/neil-gaiman/) > [Famines are political. We all know that the immediate response to a famine must be food, aid, and shelter, but we should also look…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/amber-rudd/famines-are-political-we-all-know-that-the-immediate-response-to-a/) [Amber Rudd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/amber-rudd/) > [“Famine, plague and war will probably continue to claim millions of victims in the coming decades. Yet they are no longer unavoidable tragedies beyond…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/yuval-noah-harari/famine-plague-and-war-will-probably-continue-to-claim-millions-of/) [Yuval Noah Harari](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/yuval-noah-harari/) > [Sometimes I want to ask God why He allows poverty, famine, and injustice when He could do something about it, but I'm afraid he…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/abdu-l-bah/sometimes-i-want-to-ask-god-why-he-allows-poverty-famine-and/) [Abdu'l-Bahá](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/abdu-l-bah/) > [I can't decide for you whether or not you have got to write, but if anything in the world, war, or pestilence, or famine,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-saroyan/i-can-t-decide-for-you-whether-or-not-you-have-got-to-write-but-if/) [William Saroyan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-saroyan/) > [Years of drought and famine come and years of flood and famine come, and the climate is not changed with dance, libation or prayer.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-wesley-powell/years-of-drought-and-famine-come-and-years-of-flood-and-famine-come/) [John Wesley Powell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-wesley-powell/) > [No famine has ever taken place in the history of the world in a functioning democracy.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/amartya-sen/no-famine-has-ever-taken-place-in-the-history-of-the-world-in-a/) [Amartya Sen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/amartya-sen/) > [So much of the world's suffering results from the sinful action or inaction of ourselves and others. For example, people look at a famine…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lee-strobel/so-much-of-the-world-s-suffering-results-from-the-sinful-action-or/) [Lee Strobel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lee-strobel/) [Browse all 401 Famine quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/famine/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Every one knew he could foretell wars and famines, though that was not so hard, for there was always a war, and generally a famine somewhere.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Mark Twain" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mark-twain/every-one-knew-he-could-foretell-wars-and-famines-though-that-was-not/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Famine" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mark-twain/every-one-knew-he-could-foretell-wars-and-famines-though-that-was-not/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bb6/mark-twain-22_famine_every-one-knew-he-could-foretell-wars-an_2941577.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bb6/mark-twain-22_famine_every-one-knew-he-could-foretell-wars-an_2941577.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bb6/mark-twain-22_famine_every-one-knew-he-could-foretell-wars-an_2941577.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Every one knew he could foretell wars and famines, though that was not so hard, for there was always a war…” — Mark Twain", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Mark Twain", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mark-twain/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Every one knew he could foretell...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mark-twain/every-one-knew-he-could-foretell-wars-and-famines-though-that-was-not/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mark-twain/every-one-knew-he-could-foretell-wars-and-famines-though-that-was-not/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```