A despot doesn’t fear eloquent writers preaching freedom- he fears a drunken poet who may crack a joke that will take hold.
E. B. WHITENauseous. 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.
More E. B. White Quotes
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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.
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Democracy is itself, a religious faith. For some it comes close to being the only formal religion they have.
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I admire anybody who has the guts to write anything at all.
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Genius is more often found in a cracked pot than in a whole one.
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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.
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I have one share in corporate Earth, and I am nervous about the management.
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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.
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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.
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Writing is one way to go about thinking, and the practice and habit of writing not only drain the mind but supply it, too.
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When you say something, make sure you have said it. The chances of your having said it are only fair.
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Use the smallest word that does the job.
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Well,” said Stuart, “a misspelled word is an abomination in the sight of everyone.
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Reading is the work of the alert mind, is demanding, and under ideal conditions produces finally a sort of ecstasy.
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Semi-colons only prove that the author has been to college.
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A poem compresses much in a small space and adds music, thus heightening its meaning.
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Everything in life is somewhere else, and you get there in a car.
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In every queen there’s a touch of floozy.
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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.
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To achieve style, begin by affecting none.
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Only a person who is congenially self-centered has the effrontery and the stamina to write essays
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All that I hope to say in books, all that I ever hope to say, is that I love the world.
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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.
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Habitually creative people are prepared to be lucky.
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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?
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There is nothing more likely to start disagreement among people or countries than an agreement.
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The world is full of people who have never, since childhood, met an open doorway with an open mind.
E. B. WHITE