E. B. White Quotes - Page 3

Quotes about:

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

  E. B. White

  Waiting, Paper, Ideals

  E. B. White (2011). “In the Words of E.B. White: Quotations from America's Most Companionable of Writers”, p.209, Cornell University Press

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• Computing machines perhaps can do the work of a dozen ordinary men, but there is no machine that can do the work of one extraordinary man.

  E. B. White

  Work, Men, Ordinary

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• 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.

  E. B. White

  Mean, Sick, Firsts

  "The Elements of Style" by William Strunk, Jr., E. B. White (Ch. IV), 1972.

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• Loneliness is a strange gift.

  E. B. White

  Life, Loneliness, Strange

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

  E. B. White

  Real, Imagination, Kind

  E. B. White (2011). “In the Words of E.B. White: Quotations from America's Most Companionable of Writers”, p.211, Cornell University Press

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• 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.

  E. B. White

  Running, Sight, Long

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

  E. B. White

  Friendship, True Friend, Charlotte's Web

  Charlotte'sWeb ch. 22 (1952)

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

  E. B. White

  Writing, Self, Stamina

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

  E. B. White

  Way, Tongue, Obscure

  E. B. White (2011). “In the Words of E.B. White: Quotations from America's Most Companionable of Writers”, p.191, Cornell University Press

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• 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.

  E. B. White

  Book, Reading, Men

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• 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.

  E. B. White

  Morning, Seductive, Challenges

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

  E. B. White

  Writing, Admiration, Admire

  E. B. White (2011). “In the Words of E.B. White: Quotations from America's Most Companionable of Writers”, p.209, Cornell University Press

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

  E. B. White

  Freedom, Democracies Have, White

  New Yorker, 3 July 1943

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

  E. B. White

  College, Prove, Has Beens

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• You're terrific as far as I am concerned.

  E. B. White

  Concerned, Terrific

  "Fictional character: Charlotte". "Charlotte's Web", www.imdb.com. 1973.

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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

  Summer, Song, Eggs

  E. B. White (2015). “Charlotte’s Web and other classic animal stories: Charlotte’s Web, The Trumpet of the Swan, Stuart Little”, p.28, HarperCollins UK

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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

  Poetry, Doe, Veils

  E. B. White (2011). “In the Words of E.B. White: Quotations from America's Most Companionable of Writers”, p.164, Cornell University Press

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• 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.

  E. B. White

  Running, People, Politics

  E. B. White (2011). “In the Words of E.B. White: Quotations from America's Most Companionable of Writers”, p.165, Cornell University Press

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• Habitually creative people are prepared to be lucky.

  E. B. White

  People, Creative, Lucky

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

  E. B. White

  Heart, Worry, Advice

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

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• 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.

  E. B. White

  Men, Weather, Sick

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

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• 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

  Writing, Track, Scary

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• To achieve style, begin by affecting none.

  E. B. White

  Style, Achieve

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• 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.

  E. B. White

  Writing, Heart, Errors

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

  E. B. White

  Understanding, Done, Frogs

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