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
English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment and education - sometimes it's sheer luck, like getting across the street.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The mastery of language involves more than just skill; sometimes it relies on chance.
E. B. White's quote highlights the idea that proficiency in English and effective communication can't always be attributed solely to one's education or innate judgment. Instead, it acknowledges that circumstance and luck can play significant roles in our ability to convey thoughts and ideas effectively, much like navigating safely across a busy street where many unpredictable factors come into play.
Themes
LanguageCommunicationLuckEducationProficiency
In practice
Example use cases
During a public speaking event to emphasize the unpredictable nature of language mastery.
More from E. B. White
All quotes βIt 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
The more students work at storing the deposits entrusted to them, the less they develop the critical consciousness which would result from their intervention in the world as transformers of that world. The more completely they accept the passive role impressed on them, the more they tend simply to adapt to the world as it is and to the fragmented view of reality deposited in them.
Paulo FreireRead
It's not just the books under fire now that worry me. It is the books that will never be written.
Judy BlumeRead
Giving children the sense that you always ought to speak up for what's right, even if it costs you something, that's something you can do.
Martha NussbaumRead
I think I am more determined than ever in my future plans, and I have quite made up my mind that nothing must be suffered to interfere with them. I intend to make such arrangements in town as will secure me a couple of hours daily (with very few exceptions) for my studies.
Ada LovelaceRead
A university is not, thank heavens, a place for vocational instruction, it has nothing to do with training for a working life and career, it is a place for education, something quite different.
Stephen FryRead
I believe that curiosity, wonder and passion are defining qualities of imaginative minds and great teachers; that restlessness and discontent are vital things; and that intense experience and suffering instruct us in ways that less intense emotions can never do.
Kay Redfield JamisonRead