E. B. White Quotes - Page 8

Quotes about:

• I believe television is going to be the test of the modern world, and that in this new opportunity to see beyond the range of our vision, we shall discover a new and unbearable disturbance of the modern peace, or a saving radiance in the sky. We shall stand or fall by television - of that I am quite sure.

  E. B. White

  Believe, Fall, Opportunity

  "One Man's Meat". Book by E. B. White, 1942.

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• Don't write about Man; write about a man.

  E. B. White

  Writing, Men, Young Writers

  E. B. WHITE (1954). “The SECOND TREE from the CORNER”

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• When a man hangs from a tree it doesn't spell justice unless he helped write the law that hanged him.

  E. B. White

  Writing, Adversity, Men

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• The world organization debates disarmament in one room and, in the next room, moves the knights and pawns that make national arms imperative.

  E. B. White

  Moving, Knights, Organization

  E. B. White (2011). “In the Words of E.B. White: Quotations from America's Most Companionable of Writers”, p.200, Cornell University Press

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• I have occasionally had the exquisite thrill of putting my finger on a little capsule of truth, and heard it give the faint squeak of mortality under my pressure.

  E. B. White

  Truth, Giving, Thrill

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

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• After all, what's a life, anyway? We're born, we live a little while, we die.

  E. B. White

  Death, Littles, Birth

  E. B. White (2011). “In the Words of E.B. White: Quotations from America's Most Companionable of Writers”, p.117, Cornell University Press

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• I have a spaniel that defrocked a nun last week. He took hold of the cord. I had hold of the leash. It was like elephants holding tails. Imagine me undressing a nun, even second hand.

  E. B. White

  Funny, Dog, Hands

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

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• As long as there is one upright man, as long as there is one compassionate woman, the contagion may spread and the scene is not desolate. Hope is the thing that is left us in a bad time.

  E. B. White

  Hope, Time, Women

  E. B. White (2011). “In the Words of E.B. White: Quotations from America's Most Companionable of Writers”, p.126, Cornell University Press

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• A single flight of planes no bigger than a wedge of geese can quickly end this island fantasy, burn the towers, crumble the bridges, turn the underground passages into lethal chambers, cremate millions... Of all targets New York has a certain clear priority. In the mind of whatever perverted dreamer might loose the lightning, New York must hold a steady, irresistible charm.

  E. B. White

  New York, Islands, Bridges

  "Here Is New York". Book by E. B. White, 1948.

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• Humor is like a frog. You can dissect it to see how it works, but by then, it's dead.

  E. B. White

  Frogs

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• In order to read one must sit down, usually indoors. I am restless and would rather sail a boat than crack a book. I've never had a very lively literary curiosity, and it has sometimes seemed to me that I am not really a literary fellow at all. Except that I write for a living.

  E. B. White

  Book, Writing, Order

  "Writers at Work". Interview with George Plimpton, Frank Crowther in Paris Review, 1969.

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• It isn't silence you can cut with a knife any more, it's interchange of ideas. Intelligent discussion of practically everything is what is breaking up modern marriage.

  E. B. White

  Marriage, Cutting, Intelligent

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• The Supreme Court said nothing about silliness, but I suspect it may play more of a role than one might suppose. People are, if anything, more touchy about being thought silly than they are about being thought unjust... Probably the first slave ship, with Negroes lying in chains on its decks, seemed commonsensical to the owners who operated it and to the planters who patronized it. But such a vessel would not be in the realm of common sense today. The only sense that is common, in the long run, is the sense of change.

  E. B. White

  Running, Lying, Silly

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• I can still see my first dog. For six years he met me at the same place after school and convoyed me home - a service he thought up himself. A boy doesn't forget that sort of association.

  E. B. White

  Friendship, Dog, Home

  E. B. White (2011). “In the Words of E.B. White: Quotations from America's Most Companionable of Writers”, p.94, Cornell University Press

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• I discovered a long time ago that writing of the small things of the day, the trivial matters of the heart, the inconsequential but near things of this living, was the only kind of creative work which I could accomplish with any sincerity or grace. As a reporter, I was a flop, because I always came back laden not with facts about the case, but with a mind full of the little difficulties and amusements I had encountered in my travels.

  E. B. White

  Writing, Heart, Long

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

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• Children hold spring so tightly in their brown fists-just as grownups, who are less sure of it, hold it in their hearts.

  E. B. White

  Children, Spring, Heart

  E. B. White (2014). “Essays of E. B. White”, p.17, Harper Collins

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• Place yourself in the background; write in a way that comes naturally; work from a suitable design; write with nouns and verbs; do not overwrite; do not overstate; avoid the use of qualifiers; do not affect a breezy style; use orthodox spelling; do not explain too much; avoid fancy words; do not take shortcuts as the cost of clarity; prefer the standard to the offbeat; make sure the reader knows who is speaking; do not use dialect; revise and rewrite.

  E. B. White

  Writing, Design, Style

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• In a sense the world dies every time a writer dies, because, if he is any good, he has been a wet nurse to humanity during his entire existence and has held earth close around him, like the little obstetrical toad that goes about with a cluster of eggs attached to his legs.

  E. B. White

  Writing, Eggs, Nurse

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• Delay is natural to a writer. He is like a surfer-he bides his time, waits for the perfect wave on which to ride in. Delay is instinctive with him. He waits for the surge (of emotion? of strength? of courage?) that will carry him along.

  E. B. White

  Inspiring, Perfect, Waiting

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• A poem compresses much in a small space and adds music, thus heightening its meaning. 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. The island of Manhattan is without any doubt the greatest human concentrate on earth, the poem whose magic is comprehensible to millions of permanent residents but whose full meaning will always remain elusive.

  E. B. White

  Islands, Race, Cities

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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

  Girl, Knowing, Giving

  E. B. White (2011). “In the Words of E.B. White: Quotations from America's Most Companionable of Writers”, p.220, Cornell University Press

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• No matter what changes take place in the world, or in me, nothing ever seems to disturb the face of spring.

  E. B. White

  Hope, Spring, Health

  E. B. White (2014). “Essays of E. B. White”, p.16, Harper Collins

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• Too many things on my mind, said Wilbur. Well, said the goose, that's not my trouble. I have nothing at all on my mind, but I've too many things under my behind.

  E. B. White

  Mind, Trouble, Well Said

  E. B. White (2011). “In the Words of E.B. White: Quotations from America's Most Companionable of Writers”, p.208, Cornell University Press

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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

  Children, Writing, Way

  E. B. White (2011). “In the Words of E.B. White: Quotations from America's Most Companionable of Writers”, p.120, Cornell University Press

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• I always write a thing first and think about it afterward, which is not a bad procedure because the easiest way to have consequential thoughts is to start putting them down.

  E. B. White

  Writing, Thinking, Way

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