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
All we need is a meteorologist who has once been soaked to the skin without ill effect. No one can write knowingly of the weather who walks bent over on wet days.
Interpretation
Experience enhances understanding, especially in writing about nature.
E. B. White emphasizes the importance of lived experience in gaining true insight, particularly concerning the unpredictable nature of weather. Only those who have faced the elements personally can truly understand and convey the nuances of the weather, making personal experience vital for authenticity in observation and communication.
In practice
During a speech about resilience, one might quote this to emphasize the value of enduring challenges.
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.
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.
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.
A good farmer is nothing more nor less than a handy man with a sense of humus.
A despot doesn't fear eloquent writers preaching freedom- he fears a drunken poet who may crack a joke that will take hold.
All writing is communication; creative writing is communication through revelation-it is the Self-escaping into the open.
But neither of us knows, because a fight's worth nothing if you know from the start that you're going to win it.
Know mankind well, don't degrade every man as evil, and don't exalt every man thinking he is good. He who cannot discover himself; cannot discover the world.
Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle which fits them all.
In this age, which believes that there is a short cut to everything, the greatest lesson to be learned is that the most difficult way is, in the long run, the easiest.
Depression can kill you. It can also be a spiritually enriching experience. It's really an important part of my theology now and my spirituality that life is not perfect, and I grew up wanting it to be and thinking that if it wasn't, I could make it that way, and I had to acknowledge that I had all kinds of flaws and sadnesses and problems.
The most exquisite paradox; as soon as you give it all up, you can have it all.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.