E. B. White Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• 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

  Inspirational, Life, Nature

  20 Copy quote

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

  E. B. White

  Funny, Senior, Witty

  59 Copy quote

• 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.

  E. B. White

  Life, Heaven, Trying

  52 Copy quote

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

  E. B. White

  Inspiring, Book, Writing

  E. B. White (2011). “In the Words of E.B. White: Quotations from America's Most Companionable of Writers”, p.76, Cornell University Press

  10 Copy quote

• 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

  Time, Nature, Fall

  82 Copy quote

• 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.

  E. B. White

  Book, Happy Times, People

  61 Copy quote

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

  E. B. White

  Life, Justice

  E. B. White (1989). “The Letters of E. B. White”, Perennial

  9 Copy quote

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

  E. B. White

  Blue, Shadow, Barns

  E. B. White (2011). “In the Words of E.B. White: Quotations from America's Most Companionable of Writers”, p.62, Cornell University Press

  48 Copy quote

• 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.

  E. B. White

  Writing, Men, Thinking

  E. B. White (2014). “Essays of E. B. White”, p.4, Harper Collins

  10 Copy quote

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

  E. B. White

  Men, Years, Age

  The Second Tree from the Corner 'A Weekend with the Angels'

  35 Copy quote

• 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.

  E. B. White

  Success, Morning, Determination

  8 Copy quote

• The best writing is rewriting.

  E. B. White

  Writing, Learning, Rewriting

  9 Copy quote

• Books are the door of escape from the forest.

  E. B. White

  Book, Doors, Forests

  10 Copy quote

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

  E. B. White

  Play, Audience Of One, Duty

  William Strunk Jr., E.B. White (1962). “the Elements of Style”

  6 Copy quote

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

  E. B. White

  Country, Agreement, People

  33 Copy quote

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

  E. B. White

  Running, Wine, Long

  E. B. White (1989). “The Letters of E. B. White”, Perennial

  62 Copy quote

• Writing is both mask and unveiling.

  E. B. White

  Inspirational, Life, Writing

  E. B. White (1989). “The Letters of E. B. White”, Perennial

  19 Copy quote

• 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.

  E. B. White

  Dog, Silly, Canine

  19 Copy quote

• 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.

  E. B. White

  Change, Dark, Clouds

  Letter to M. Nadeau, March 30, 1973.

  20 Copy quote

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

  E. B. White

  Escaping, Self, Style

  8 Copy quote

• 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.

  E. B. White

  Birthday, Special, Age

  19 Copy quote

• Use the smallest word that does the job.

  E. B. White

  Jobs, Writing, Doe

  41 Copy quote

• 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

  Children, Writing, Games

  38 Copy quote

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

  E. B. White

  Inspiring, Faith, Writing

  William Strunk Jr., E.B. White (1962). “the Elements of Style”

  14 Copy quote

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

  E. B. White

  Reading, Mind, Produce

  E. B. White (2011). “In the Words of E.B. White: Quotations from America's Most Companionable of Writers”, p.171, Cornell University Press

  54 Copy quote

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