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Most people think of peace as a state of Nothing Bad Happening, or Nothing Much Happening. Yet if peace is to overtake us and make us the gift of serenity and well-being, it will have to be the state of Something Good Happening.
E. B. White
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Interpretation

What this quote means

True peace is not merely the absence of conflict, but the presence of positive experiences and well-being.

E. B. White's quote emphasizes that peace should not be perceived merely as a lack of negativity or silence, but rather as a proactive state of harmony and positivity. It suggests that true serenity stems from active engagement with goodness and positive experiences in our lives, highlighting a deeper understanding of what it means to be at peace.

Themes

PeaceSerenityWell-BeingGoodnessPositivity

In practice

Example use cases

In a speech about mental health, one might use the quote to illustrate the importance of cultivating positive experiences.

More from E. B. White

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.
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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.
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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.
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A good farmer is nothing more nor less than a handy man with a sense of humus.
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A despot doesn't fear eloquent writers preaching freedom- he fears a drunken poet who may crack a joke that will take hold.
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All writing is communication; creative writing is communication through revelation-it is the Self-escaping into the open.
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