A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court Quotes

Context

This famous line is from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain (1889).

Here is a quote we can totally get behind. We've never been able to depend on our eyes. Why, just last week they were supposed to pick us up from the library at five o'clock and they didn't show up until after seven—so irresponsible.

Okay… so Mark Twain was probably speaking in a less literal sense here. Let's look closer:

When this line is delivered, Hank—the main character in the novel A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court—is looking out over an embankment, wondering if he and his buddies are about to be attacked. He's considering the possibility that his eyes are deceiving him, which is why he says "You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus." In other words, because his imagination is running wild and capable of conjuring all sorts of menacing threats to his safety, he can't even take what his eyes think they see at face value—because, well… they might be in cahoots with his imagination.

Unfortunately, when you're worried you might be in danger and every shadow makes you jump, it's pretty difficult to get your imagination into focus—not without a serious telephoto lens, that is.

Where you've heard it

You may have come across the line if you spend a lot of time reading educational or inspirational blogs. It hasn't been borrowed very often to name a bakery or dry cleaners or anything like that. (Let's face it: "Imagination Out of Focus Donuts" is just plain clunky.) All the same, it does get quite a bit of play in the epigraph department.

You also may have heard someone recite this quote to you in a situation where they're attempting to convince you that you haven't seen what you think you've seen—like, when you caught that guy shoplifting Twinkies at the 7-Eleven.

Pretentious Factor

Mark Twain is no William Faulkner when it comes to being pretentious, but he has his moments. This quote is written in simple, easy-to-understand language… but he is getting a little Aesop-y all up in here. It seems like he's trying a bit hard to craft a line that's going to make the all-time quotes list by being sneakily brilliant. So… we'll give it a "4."