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
We grow tyrannical fighting tyranny. . . . The most alarming spectacle today is not the spectacle of the atomic bomb in an unfederated world, it is the spectacle of the Americans beginning to accept the device of loyalty oaths and witch hunts, beginning to call anybody they don't like a Communist.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote warns against becoming oppressive while opposing oppression.
E. B. White's quote critiques the tendency of individuals or societies fighting against tyranny to adopt tyrannical methods themselves. He emphasizes that the real danger lies not just in external threats, such as the atomic bomb, but in the internal acceptance of loyalty oaths and witch hunts, where dissenters are labeled as enemies, undermining the very principles of freedom and justice they claim to uphold.
Themes
TyrannyLoyalty OathsFreedomWitch HuntsOppression
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about civil liberties, you might use this quote to highlight the dangers of compromising freedom in the name of security.
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.
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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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