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
Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but the thing dies in the process and the innards are discouraging to any but the pure scientific mind.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Humor can be analyzed and taken apart, but doing so may ruin its essence and reveal uncomfortable truths.
E. B. White suggests that while humor can be examined and dissected like a scientific specimen, such analysis often strips away the joy and spontaneity that make it enjoyable. The careful scrutiny may uncover unpleasant realities that only someone with a scientific mindset would appreciate, leaving the essence of humor diminished and unappetizing to the average person.
Themes
HumorAnalysisEssenceScienceJoy
In practice
Example use cases
In a workshop on creativity, one could quote this to emphasize the spontaneous nature of humor.
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
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