Nationalism has two fatal charms for its devotees: It presupposes local self-sufficiency, which is a pleasant and desirable condition, and it suggests, very subtly, a certain personal superiority by reason of one's belonging to a place which is definable and familiar, as against a place that is strange, remote.
E. B. WhiteThe world organization debates disarmament in one room and, in the next room, moves the knights and pawns that make national arms imperative.
E. B. WhiteWhere I would like to discover facts, I find fancy. Where I would like to learn what I did, I learn only what I was thinking. Theyare loaded with opinion, moral thoughts, quick evaluations, youthful hopes and cares and sorrows. Occasionally, they manage to report something in exquisite honesty and accuracy. That is why I have refrained from burning them.
E. B. WhiteA shaft of sunlight at the end of a dark afternoon, a note of music, and the way the back of a babyโs neck smells if itโs mother keeps it tidy,โ answered Henry. โCorrect,โ said Stuart. โThose are the important things. You forgot one thing, though. Mary Bendix, what did Henry Rackmeyer forget?โ โHe forgot ice cream with chocolate sauce on it,โ said Mary quickly.
E. B. White