It is by all odds the loftiest of cities. It even managed to reach the highest point in the sky at the lowest moment of the depression.
E. B. WhiteRead
I can only assume that your editorial writer tripped over the First Amendment and thought it was the office cat.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote humorously critiques someone's misunderstanding of the First Amendment by comparing it to a distracted cat.
E. B. White's quote cleverly uses humor to highlight the notion that the significance of the First Amendment—freedom of speech and the press—can be overshadowed by trivial distractions in the media or public discourse. The analogy of tripping over the amendment and mistaking it for an office cat suggests a comical but critical view of how seriously some individuals take constitutional rights.
Themes
First AmendmentHumorMediaFreedom Of SpeechCritique
In practice
Example use cases
Use this quote in a speech about the importance of media literacy.
More from E. B. White
All quotes →It isn't silence you can cut with a knife any more, it's interchange of ideas. Intelligent discussion of practically everything is what is breaking up modern marriage.
E. B. WhiteRead
The main thing I try to do is write as clearly as I can. Because I have the greatest respect for the reader, and if he's going to the trouble of reading what I've written -- I'm a slow reader myself and I guess most people are -- why, the least I can do is make it as easy as possible for him to find out what I'm trying to say, trying to get at. I rewrite a good deal to make it clear.
E. B. WhiteRead
A good farmer is nothing more nor less than a handy man with a sense of humus.
E. B. WhiteRead
A despot doesn't fear eloquent writers preaching freedom- he fears a drunken poet who may crack a joke that will take hold.
E. B. WhiteRead
All writing is communication; creative writing is communication through revelation-it is the Self-escaping into the open.
E. B. WhiteRead
Similar quotes
I think a joke is a form of truth-telling. A good joke that's absurd contains elements of our daily darkness and also a possibility to escape that darkness. So, for me, humor is an attempt to capture everyday tragedy and everyday hopeful moments that we experience all of the time.
Colson WhiteheadRead
If you work on a comedy show, your basic form of communication is teasing. That's generally how we speak to each other: you communicate the information between the lines of insulting sentences.
John OliverRead
Ignorant people think it is the noise which fighting cats make that is so aggravating, but it ain't so; it is the sickening grammar that they use.
Mark TwainRead
I have never developed indigestion from eating my words.
Winston ChurchillRead
Storytelling and copulation are the two chief forms of amusement in the South. They're inexpensive and easy to procure.
Robert Penn WarrenRead
Will you marry me? Do you have any money? Answer the second question first.
Groucho MarxRead