E. b. white quotes

Be obscure clearly! Be wild of tongue in a way we can understand.

Television hangs on the questionable theory that whatever happens anywhere should be sensed everywhere. If everyone is going to be able to see everything, in the long run all sights may lose whatever rarity value they once possessed, and it may well turn out that people, being able to see and hear practically everything, will be specially interested in almost nothing.

A poet's pleasure is to withhold a little of his meaning, to intensify by mystification. He unzips the veil from beauty, but does not remove it.

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.

A writer's style reveals something of his spirit, his habits, his capacites, his bias...it is the Self escaping into the open.

I get up every morning determined to both change the world and to have one hell of a good time. Sometimes, this makes planning the day difficult.

Loneliness is a strange gift.

From morning till night, sounds drift from the kitchen, most of them familiar and comforting. . . . On days when warmth is the most important need of the human heart, the kitchen is the place you can find it; it dries the wet sock, it cools the hot little brain.

Liberals are like dogs: The liberal holds that he is true to the republic when he is true to himself. (It may not be as cozy an attitude as it sounds.) He greets with enthusiasm the fact of the journey, as a dog greets a man's invitation to take a walk. And he acts in the dog's way too, swinging wide, racing ahead, doubling back, covering many miles of territory that the man never traverses, all in the spirit of inquiry and the zest for truth. He leaves a crazy trail, but he ranges far beyond the genteel old party he walks with and he is usually in a better position to discover a skunk.

One of the most time-consuming things is to have an enemy.

I see nothing in space as promising as the view from a Ferris wheel.

Most people think of peace as a state of Nothing Bad Happening, or Nothing Much Happening. Yet if peace is to overtake us and make us the gift of serenity and well-being, it will have to be the state of Something Good Happening.

A writer should concern himself with whatever absorbs his fancy, stirs his heart, and unlimbers his typewriter. ... A writer has the duty to be good, not lousy: true, not false; lively, not dull; accurate, not full of error. He should tend to lift people up, not lower them down.

The so-called science of poll-taking is not a science at all but mere necromancy. People are unpredictable by nature, and although you can take a nation's pulse, you can't be sure that the nation hasn't just run up a flight of stairs.

A candidate could easily commit political suicide if he were to come up with an unconventional thought during a presidential tour.

The essayist is a self-liberated man, sustained by the childish belief that everything he thinks about, everything that happens to him, is of general interest.

Writing is an act of faith, not a trick of grammar.

All writing is communication; creative writing is communication through revelation-it is the Self-escaping into the open.

The trouble with the profit system has always been that it was highly unprofitable to most people.

It is Sunday, mid-morning-Sunday in the living room, Sunday in the kitchen, Sunday in the woodshed, Sunday down the road in the village: I hear the bells, calling me to share God's grace.

Mother: It's broccoli, dear. --- Child: I say it's spinach, and I say the hell with it.

Democracy is itself, a religious faith. For some it comes close to being the only formal religion they have.

I don't know which is more discouraging, literature or chickens.

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.

I have one share in corporate Earth, and I am nervous about the management.

Trust me, Wilbur. People are very gullible. They'll believe anything they see in print.

As a writing man, or secretary, I have always felt charged with the safekeeping of all unexpected items of worldly and unworldly enchantment, as though I might be held personally responsible if even a small one were to be lost.

A really companionable and indispensable dog is an accident of nature. You can't get it by breeding for it, and you can't buy it with money. It just happens along.

Good deeds never go unpunished.

In a man's middle years there is scarcely a part of the body he would hesitate to turn over to the proper authorities.

The best writing is rewriting.

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.

A despot doesn't fear eloquent writers preaching freedom- he fears a drunken poet who may crack a joke that will take hold.

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 book.

The whole problem is to establish communication with ones self.

It's hard to know when to respond to the seductiveness of the world and when to respond to its challenge. 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 the desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.

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

Hang on to your hat. Hang on to your hope. And wind the clock, for tomorrow is another day.

His words span rivers and mountains, but his thoughts are still only six inches long.

There are roughly three New Yorks. There is, first, the New York of the man or woman who was born here, who takes the city for granted and accepts its size and its turbulence as natural and inevitable. Second, there is the New York of the commuter — the city that is devoured by locusts each day and spat out each night. Third, there is the New York of the person who was born somewhere else and came to New York in quest of something.

Life is like writing with a pen. You can cross out your past but you can't erase it.

A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word to paper.

You're terrific as far as I am concerned.

An editor is a person who knows more about writing than writers do but who has escaped the terrible desire to write.

A poem compresses much in a small space and adds music, thus heightening its meaning.

A library is many things, but particularly it is a place where books live, and where you can get in touch with other people, and other thoughts, through books... Books hold most of the secrets of the world, most of the thoughts that men and women have had.

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 book.

In a free country it is the duty of writers to pay no attention to duty.

Use the smallest word that does the job.

It is quite possible that an animal has spoken to me and that I didn't catch the remark because I wasn't paying attention.

Writing is one way to go about thinking, and the practice and habit of writing not only drain the mind but supply it, too.

When you consider that there are a thousand ways to express even the simplest idea, it is no wonder writers are under a great strain. Writers care greatly how a thing is said - it makes all the difference. So they are constantly faced with too many choices and must make too many decisions.

When you say something, make sure you have said it. The chances of your having said it are only fair.

Old age is a special problem for me because I've never been able to shed the mental image I have of myself - a lad of about 19.

Being the owner of Dachshunds, to me a book on dog discipline becomes a volume of inspired humor. Every sentence is a riot. Some day, if I ever get a chance, I shall write a book, or warning, on the character and temperament of the Dachshund and why he can't be trained and shouldn't be. I would rather train a striped zebra to balance an Indian club than induce a Dachshund to heed my slightest command. When I address Fred I never have to raise either my voice or my hopes. He even disobeys me when I instruct him in something he wants to do.

Stuart rose from the ditch, climbed into his car, and started up the road that led toward the north...As he peeked ahead into the great land that stretched before him, the way seemed long. But the sky was bright, and he somehow felt he was headed in the right direction.

You have been my friend. That in itself is a tremendous thing. I wove my webs for you because I liked you. After all, what's a life, anyway? We're born, we live a little while, we die. A spider's life can't help being something of a mess, with all this trapping and eating flies. By helping you, perhaps I was trying to lift up my life a trifle. Heaven knows anyone's life can stand a little of that.

Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.

Habitually creative people are prepared to be lucky.

Writing is both mask and unveiling.

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.

A schoolchild should be taught grammar—for the same reason that a medical student should study anatomy.

In every queen there's a touch of floozy.

I am still encouraged to go on. I wouldn't know where else to go.

There is nothing more likely to start disagreement among people or countries than an agreement.

It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer.

A right is a responsibility in reverse.

Semi-colons only prove that the author has been to college.

I am always humbled by the infite ingenuity of the Lord, who can make a red barn cast a blue shadow.

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.

All that I hope to say in books, all that I ever hope to say, is that I love the world.

Make the work interesting and the discipline will take care of itself.

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

You can dissect a joke just as you can a frog. But it tends to die on you.

Is there anything in the universe more beautiful and protective than the simple complexity of a spider's web?

Life's meaning has always eluded me and I guess always will. But I love it just the same.

The main thing I try to do is write as clearly as I can. I rewrite a good deal to make it clear.

Extreme cold when it first arrives seems to generate cheerfulness and sociability. For a few hours all life's dubious problems are dropped in favor of the clear and congenial task of keeping alive.

But real life is only one kind of life—there is also the life of the imagination.

I believe in dreams. People should have faith in the songs poets sing.

Fern was up at daylight, trying to rid the world of injustice. As a result, she now has a pig. A small one to be sure, but nevertheless a pig. It just shows what can happen if a person gets out of bed promptly.

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.

To achieve style, begin by affecting none.

Books are the door of escape from the forest.

Children are game for anything. I throw them hard words, and they backhand them over the net. They love words that give them a hard time, provided they are in a context that absorbs their attention.

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.

English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment and education - sometimes it's sheer luck, like getting across the street.

Every morning I awake torn between a desire to save the world and an inclination to savor it. This makes it hard to plan the day. But if we forget to savor the world, what possible reason do we have for saving it? In a way, the savoring must come first.

Never hurry and never worry!

Sailors have an expression about the weather: they say the weather is a great bluffer. I guess the same is true of our human society — things can look dark, then a break shows in the clouds, and all is changed.

The world is full of people who have never, since childhood, met an open doorway with an open mind.

Nauseous. Nauseated. The first means "sickening to contemplate"; the second means "sick at the stomach." Do not, therefore, say "I feel nauseous," unless you are sure you have that effect on others.

The beginner should approach style warily, realizing that it is himself he is approaching, no other; and he should begin by turning resolutely away from all devices that are popularly believed to indicate style - all mannerisms, tricks, adornments. The approach to style is by way of plainness, simplicity, orderliness, sincerity.

Reading is the work of the alert mind, is demanding, and under ideal conditions produces finally a sort of ecstasy.

Safety is all well and good: I prefer freedom.

Well,” said Stuart, “a misspelled word is an abomination in the sight of everyone.

The whole duty of a writer is to please and satisfy himself, and the true writer always plays to an audience of one.

Books hold most of the secrets of the world, most of the thoughts that men and women have had. And when you are reading a book, you and the author are alone together-just the two of you.

No one can write decently who is distrustful of the reader's intelligence or whose attitude is patronizing.

I admire anybody who has the guts to write anything at all.

Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder.

I am reminded of the advice of my neighbor. "Never worry about your heart till it stops beating.

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. She was in a class by herself. It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer. Charlotte was both.

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.

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.

I have noticed that most men when they enter a barber shop and must wait their turn, drop into a chair and pick up a magazine. I simply sit down and pick up the thread of my sea wanderings, which began more than fifty years ago and is not quite ended. There is hardly a waiting room in the east that has not served as my cockpit, whether I was waiting to board a train or to see a dentist. And I am usually still trimming sheets when the train starts or drill begins to whine.

Television will enormously enlarge the eye's range, and, like radio, will advertise the Elsewhere. Together with the tabs, the mags, and the movies, it will insist that we forget the primary and the near in favor of the secondary and the remote.

Prejudice is a great time saver. You can form opinions without having to get the facts.

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?

Writing is hard work and bad for the health.

There's no limit to how complicated things can get, on account of one thing always leading to another.

People are, if anything, more touchy about being thought silly than they are about being thought unjust.

When I get sick of what men do, I have only to walk a few steps in another direction to see what spiders do. Or what the weather does. This sustains me very well indeed.

Genius is more often found in a cracked pot than in a whole one.

We should all do what, in the long run, gives us joy, even if it is only picking grapes or sorting the laundry.

A good farmer is nothing more nor less than a handy man with a sense of humus.

If a man is to be obsessed by something, I suppose a boat is as good as anything, perhaps a bit better than most.

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.

Everything in life is somewhere else, and you get there in a car.

Before the seed there comes the thought of bloom.

Only a person who is congenially self-centered has the effrontery and the stamina to write essays

Geese are friends to no one, they bad mouth everybody and everything. But they are companionable once you get used to their ingratitude and false accusations.

Understanding humor is like dissecting a live frog. It can be done, but the frog tends to die in the process.

Luck is not something you can mention in the presence of self-made men.

Creation is in part merely the business of forgoing the great and small distractions.