E.B. White

Quotes

• “A library is a good place to go when you feel unhappy, for there, in a book, you may find encouragement and comfort. A l...”
• “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...”
• “It was a delicious meal -- skim milk, wheat middlings, leftover pancakes, half a doughnut, the rind of a summer squash, ...”
• “I am pessimistic about the human race because it is too ingenious for its own good. Our approach to nature is to beat it...”
• “New York is the concentrate of art and commerce and sport and religion and entertainment and finance, bringing to a sing...”
• “Every night, before he turned in, he would write in the book. He wrote about things he had done, things he had seen, and...”
• “There is nothing harder to estimate than a writer's time, nothing harder to keep track of. There are moments—moments of ...”
• “A schoolchild should be taught grammar--for the same reason that a medical student should study anatomy. Having learned ...”
• “The crickets felt it was their duty to warn everybody that summertime cannot last for ever. Even on the most beautiful d...”
• “I’ve got a new friend, all right. But what a gamble friendship is! Charlotte is fierce, brutal, scheming, bloodthirsty—e...”
• “They just keep trotting back and forth across the bridge thinking there is something better on the other side. If they'd...”
• “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 d...”
• “By comparison with other less hectic days, the city is uncomfortable and inconvenient; but New Yorkers temperamentally d...”
• “I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and m...”
• “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 info...”
• “The rat had no morals, no conscience, no scruples, no consideration, no decency, no milk of rodent kindness, no compunct...”
• “Early summer days are a jubilee time for birds. In the fields, around the house, in the barn, in the woods, in the swamp...”
• “It can destroy an individual, or it can fulfill him, depending a good deal on luck. No one should come to New York to li...”
• “New York is to the nation what the white church spire is to the village - the visible symbol of aspiration and faith, th...”
• “The night seemed long. Wilbur's stomach was empty and his mind was full. And when your stomach is empty and your mind is...”
• “Wilbur never forgot Charlotte. Although he loved her children and grandchildren dearly, none of the new spiders ever qui...”
• “When an American family becomes separated from its toothbrushes and combs and pajamas for a few hours it considers that ...”
• “The city is like poetry; it compresses all life, all races and breeds, into a small island and adds music and the accomp...”
• “A poet dares be just so clear and no clearer... He unzips the veil from beauty, but does not remove it. A poet utterly c...”
• “Walden is the report of a man torn by two powerful and opposing drives – the desire to enjoy the world and the urge to s...”
• “The critic leaves at curtain fall To find, in starting to review it, He scarcely saw the play at all For starting to rev...”
• “To perceive Christmas through its wrapping becomes more difficult with every year. "The Distant Music of the Hounds," 19...”
• “If you don't know how to pronounce a word, say it loud!" (William Strunk) ... Why compound ignorance with inaudibility?”
• “Thus I, gone forth, as spiders do,In spider’s web a truth discerning,Attach one silken strand to youFor my returning.”
• “At this season of the year, darkness is a more insistent thing than cold. The days are short as any dream.”
• “There is nothing so expensive, really, as a big, well-developed, full-bodied preconception.”
• “new york provides not only a continuing excitation but also a spectacle that is continuing.”
• “Trust me, Wilbur. People are very gullible. They'll believe anything they see in print.”
• “Life is like writing with a pen. You can cross out your past but you can't erase it.”
• “Remember that writing is translation, and the opus to be translated is yourself.”
• “It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer.”
• “As everyone knows, there is often a rather fine line between laughing and crying”
• “I'm really too young to go out into the world alone," he thought as he lay down.”
• “I'm really too young to go out into the world alone," he thought as he lay down”
• “Besides, my life is a catastrophe. It's a catastrophe to be without a voice.”
• “You have been my friend... And that in itself is a tremendous thing.”
• “I see nothing in space as promising as the view from a Ferris wheel.”
• “It is deeply satisfying to win a prize in front of a lot of people.”
• “Hope is the thing that is left to us, in a bad time.”
• “Safety is all well and good: I prefer freedom.”
• “We take to the breeze, we go as we please.”
• “The best writing is rewriting.”