66 Quotes & Sayings By Eb White

E.B. White was an American author, editor, and humorist, who wrote The Elements of Style, the well-known guide to precise and correct written English. He was also a popular short story writer and essayist. His other works include Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little Read more

He won a Pulitzer Prize for his work as an editor of The New Yorker and the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his contributions to writing and literature.

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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 the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day. E.B. White
After all, what's a life, anyway? We're born, we live...
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After all, what's a life, anyway? We're born, we live a little while, we die. E.B. White
Trust me, Wilbur. People are very gullible. They'll believe anything...
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Trust me, Wilbur. People are very gullible. They'll believe anything they see in print. E.B. White
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This is what youth must figure out: Girls, love, and living. The having, the not having, The spending and giving, And the meloncholy time of not knowing. This is what age must learn about: The ABC of dying. The going, yet not going, The loving and leaving, And the unbearable knowing and knowing E.B. White
Thus I, gone forth, as spiders do, In spider’s web...
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Thus I, gone forth, as spiders do, In spider’s web a truth discerning, Attach one silken strand to you For my returning. E.B. White
A poet dares be just so clear and no clearer......
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A poet dares be just so clear and no clearer... He unzips the veil from beauty, but does not remove it. A poet utterly clear is a trifle glaring. E.B. White
Writing is an act of faith, not a trick of...
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Writing is an act of faith, not a trick of grammar. E.B. White
All that I hope to say in books, all that...
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All that I hope to say in books, all that I ever hope to say, is that I love the world. E.B. White
Writing is both mask and unveiling.
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Writing is both mask and unveiling. E.B. White
10
The mind travels faster than the pen; consequently, writing becomes a question of learning to make occasional wing shots, bringing down the bird of thought as it flashes by. A writer is a gunner, sometimes waiting in the blind for something to come in, sometimes roaming the countryside hoping to scare something up. E.B. White
The best writing is rewriting.
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The best writing is rewriting. E.B. White
12
Anyone who writes down to children is simply wasting his time. You have to write up, not down. Children are demanding. They are the most attentive, curious, eager, observant, sensitive, quick, and generally congenial readers on earth.... Children are game for anything. I throw them hard words and they backhand them across the net. E.B. White
Remember that writing is translation, and the opus to be...
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Remember that writing is translation, and the opus to be translated is yourself. E.B. White
14
There is nothing harder to estimate than a writer's time, nothing harder to keep track of. There are moments–moments of sustained creation–when his time is fairly valuable; and there are hours and hours when a writer's time isn't worth the paper he is not writing anything on. E.B. White
15
A library is a good place to go when you feel unhappy, for there, in a book, you may find encouragement and comfort. A library is a good place to go when you feel bewildered or undecided, for there, in a book, you may have your question answered. Books are good company, in sad times and happy times, for books are people - people who have managed to stay alive by hiding between the covers of a E.B. White
Life is like writing with a pen. You can cross...
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Life is like writing with a pen. You can cross out your past but you can't erase it. E.B. White
Why did you do all this for me?' he asked....
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Why did you do all this for me?' he asked. 'I don't deserve it. I've never done anything for you.' 'You have been my friend, ' replied Charlotte. 'That in itself is a tremendous thing. E.B. White
It is not often that someone comes along who is...
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It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer. E.B. White
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I’ve got a new friend, all right. But what a gamble friendship is! Charlotte is fierce, brutal, scheming, bloodthirsty–everything I don’t like. How can I learn to like her, even though she is pretty and, of course, clever? E.B. White
You have been my friend... And that in itself is...
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You have been my friend... And that in itself is a tremendous thing. E.B. White
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They just keep trotting back and forth across the bridge thinking there is something better on the other side. If they'd hang head-down at the top of the thing and wait quietly, maybe something good would come along. E.B. White
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Every night, before he turned in, he would write in the book. He wrote about things he had done, things he had seen, and thoughts he had had. Sometimes he drew a picture. He always ended by asking himself a question so he would have something to think about while falling asleep. E.B. White
Safety is all well and good: I prefer freedom.
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Safety is all well and good: I prefer freedom. E.B. White
We take to the breeze, we go as we please.
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We take to the breeze, we go as we please. E.B. White
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The United States, almost alone today, offers the liberties and the privileges and the tools of freedom. In this land the citizens are still invited to write their plays and books, to paint their pictures, to meet for discussion, to dissent as well as to agree, to mount soapboxes in the public square, to enjoy education in all subjects without censorship, to hold court and judge one another, to compose music, to talk politics with their neighbors without wondering whether the secret police are listening, to exchange ideas as well as goods, to kid the government when it needs kidding, and to read real news of real events instead of phony news manufactured by a paid agent of the state. This is a fact and should give every person pause. E.B. White
Explaining a joke is like dissecting a frog. You understand...
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Explaining a joke is like dissecting a frog. You understand it better but the frog dies in the process. E.B. White
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I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority. E.B. White
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I am pessimistic about the human race because it is too ingenious for its own good. Our approach to nature is to beat it into submission. We would stand a better chance of survival if we accommodated ourselves to this planet and viewed it appreciatively, instead of skeptically and dictatorially. E.B. White
29
Tonight I heard Louis's horn. My father heard it, too. The wind was right, and I could hear the notes of taps, just as darkness fell. There is nothing in all the world I like better than the trumpet of the swan. E.B. White
30
I am reminded of the advice of my neighbor. "Never worry about your heart till it stops beating. E.B. White
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Wilbur never forgot Charlotte. Although he loved her children and grandchildren dearly, none of the new spiders ever quite took her place in his heart. E.B. White
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The night seemed long. Wilbur's stomach was empty and his mind was full. And when your stomach is empty and your mind is full, it's always hard to sleep. E.B. White
33
If you don't know how to pronounce a word, say it loud! " (William Strunk). .. Why compound ignorance with inaudibility? E.B. White
34
Just the minute another person is drawn into some one's life, there begin to arise undreamed-of complexities, and from such a simple beginning as sexual desire we find built up such alarming yet familiar phenomena as fetes, divertissements, telephone conversations, arrangements, plans, sacrifices, train arrivals, meetings, appointments, tardiness, delays, marriages, dinners, small pets and animals, calumny, children, music lessons, yellow shades for the windows, evasions, lethargy, cigarettes, candies, repetition of stories and anecdotes, infidelity, ineptitude, incompatibility, bronchial trouble, and many others, all of which are entirely foreign to the original urge and way off the subject. E.B. White
35
I have seldom met an individual of literary tastes or propensities in whom the writing of love was not directly attributable to the love of writing. A person of this sort falls terribly in love, but in the end it turns out that he is more bemused by a sheet of white paper than a sheet of white bed linen. He would rather leap into print with his lady than leap into bed with her. (This first pleases the lady and then annoys her. She wants him to do both, and with virtually the same impulse.) . E.B. White
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There is nothing so expensive, really, as a big, well-developed, full-bodied preconception. E.B. White
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When an American family becomes separated from its toothbrushes and combs and pajamas for a few hours it considers that it has had quite an adventure. E.B. White
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The crickets felt it was their duty to warn everybody that summertime cannot last for ever. Even on the most beautiful days in the whole year - the days when summer is changing into autumn - the crickets spread the rumour of sadness and change. E.B. White
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A schoolchild should be taught grammar--for the same reason that a medical student should study anatomy. Having learned about the exciting mysteries of an English sentence, the child can then go forth and speak and write any damn way he pleases. E.B. White
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The rat had no morals, no conscience, no scruples, no consideration, no decency, no milk of rodent kindness, no compunctions, no higher feeling, no friendliness, no anything E.B. White
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It was a delicious meal -- skim milk, wheat middlings, leftover pancakes, half a doughnut, the rind of a summer squash, two pieces of stale toast, a third of a gingersnap, a fish tail, one orange peel, several noodles from a noodle soup, the scum off a cup of cocoa, an ancient jelly roll, a strip of paper from the lining of the garbage pail, and a spoonful of raspberry jello. E.B. White
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As everyone knows, there is often a rather fine line between laughing and crying E.B. White
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The world is full of talkers, but it is rare to find anyone who listens. And I assure you that you can pick up more information when you are listening than when you are talking. E.B. White
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..Surely the Board knows what democracy is. It is the line that forms on the right. It is the don’t in don’t shove. It is the hole in the stuffed shirt through which the sawdust slowly trickles; it is the dent in the high hat. Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half the peopleare right more than half the time. It is the feeling of privacy in the voting booths, the feeling of communion in the libraries, the feeling of vitality everywhere. Democracy is a letter to the editor. Democracy is the score at the beginning of the ninth. It is an idea which hasn’t been disproved yet, a song the words of which have not gone bad. It’s the mustard on the hot dog and the cream in the rationed coffee. . E.B. White
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Hope is the thing that is left to us, in a bad time. E.B. White
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It is quite obvious that the human race has made a queer mess of life on this planet. But as a people we probably harbor seeds of goodness that have lain for a long time waiting to sprout when conditions are right. Man's curiosity, his relentlessness, his inventiveness, his ingenuity have led him into deep trouble. We can only hope that these same traits will enable him to claw his way out. E.B. White
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To confront death, in any guise, is to identify with the victim and face what is unsettling and sobering E.B. White
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To perceive Christmas through its wrapping becomes more difficult with every year. "The Distant Music of the Hounds, " 1954 E.B. White
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I see nothing in space as promising as the view from a Ferris wheel. E.B. White
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By comparison with other less hectic days, the city is uncomfortable and inconvenient; but New Yorkers temperamentally do not crave comfort and convenience- if they did they would live elsewhere. E.B. White
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The sea answers all questions, and always in the same way; for when you read in the papers the interminable discussions and the bickering and the prognostications and the turmoil, the disagreements and the fateful decisions and agreements and the plans and the programs and the threats and the counter threats, then you close your eyes and the sea dispatches one more big roller in the unbroken line since the beginning of the world and it combs and breaks and returns foaming and saying: "So soon?" E. B. White "On A Florida Key . E.B. White
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It can destroy an individual, or it can fulfill him, depending a good deal on luck. No one should come to New York to live unless he is willing to be lucky. E.B. White
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At this season of the year, darkness is a more insistent thing than cold. The days are short as any dream. E.B. White
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Walden is the report of a man torn by two powerful and opposing drives — the desire to enjoy the world and the urge to set the world straight. E.B. White
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It is deeply satisfying to win a prize in front of a lot of people. E.B. White
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Early summer days are a jubilee time for birds. In the fields, around the house, in the barn, in the woods, in the swamp - everywhere love and songs and nests and eggs. E.B. White
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New york provides not only a continuing excitation but also a spectacle that is continuing. E.B. White
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The city is like poetry; it compresses all life, all races and breeds, into a small island and adds music and the accompaniment of internal engines. E.B. White
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New York is to the nation what the white church spire is to the village - the visible symbol of aspiration and faith, the white plume saying the way is up E.B. White
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New York is the concentrate of art and commerce and sport and religion and entertainment and finance, bringing to a single compact arena the gladiator, the evangelist, the promoter, the actor, the trader and the merchant. No one should come to New York to live unless he is willing to be lucky. E.B. White
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I'm really too young to go out into the world alone, " he thought as he lay down E.B. White
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I'm really too young to go out into the world alone, " he thought as he lay down. E.B. White
63
One of the most interesting accomplishments of the film community, it seems to me, is that it has made real for America the exquisite beauty of incompatibility. Divorce among the gods possesses the sweet, holy sadness that has long been associated with marriage among the mortals. There is something infinitely tender about the inability of an actor to get along with an actress. When it is all over, and the decree is final, the two are even more attentive to each other, are seen oftener together, than ever before. . E.B. White
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Besides, my life is a catastrophe. It's a catastrophe to be without a voice. E.B. White
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The critic leaves at curtain fall To find, in starting to review it, He scarcely saw the play at all For starting to review it. E.B. White