“If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve (or save) the world and a desire to enjoy (or savor) the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.”
Quoted in profile by Israel Shenker, "E. B. White: Notes and Comment by Author" http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/08/03/lifetimes/white-notes.html, The New York Times (11 July 1969)
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
E. B. White54
American writer 1899–1985Related quotes
“I have no desires, save the desire to express myself in defiance of all the world’s muteness.”
Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977) Russian-American novelist, lepidopterist, professor
“Challenge, and not desire, lies at the heart of seduction.”
Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007) French sociologist and philosopher
Source: 1980s, The Ecstasy of Communication (1987), p. 57
Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis (1893–1972) Indian scientist
Quote, Professor P.C. Mahalanobis and the Development of Population Statistics in lndia
Jan Zwicky (1955) Canadian philosopher
Governor Generals Award for Poetry, Nov. 1999.
Other
Harry Truman (1884–1972) American politician, 33rd president of the United States (in office from 1945 to 1953)
Special Message to the Congress on the Threat to the Freedom of Europe (1948)
Arthur C. Clarke book The City and the Stars
Source: The City and the Stars (1956), Chapter 5 (p. 37)
Alfred, Lord Tennyson The Sisters
The Sisters, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)