I see nothing in space as promising as the view from a Ferris wheel.
E. B. WHITEIn a man’s middle years there is scarcely a part of the body he would hesitate to turn over to the proper authorities.
More E. B. White Quotes
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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.
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Writing is hard work and bad for the health.
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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.
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I have one share in corporate Earth, and I am nervous about the management.
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An editor is a person who knows more about writing than writers do but who has escaped the terrible desire to write.
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A despot doesn’t fear eloquent writers preaching freedom- he fears a drunken poet who may crack a joke that will take hold.
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“What’s miraculous about a spider’s web?” said Mrs. Arable. “I don’t see why you say a web is a miracle–it’s just a web.” “Ever try to spin one?” asked Mr. Dorian.
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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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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.
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You’re terrific as far as I am concerned.
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Life’s meaning has always eluded me and I guess always will. But I love it just the same.
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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.
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A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word to paper.
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In every queen there’s a touch of floozy.
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Be obscure clearly! Be wild of tongue in a way we can understand.
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A candidate could easily commit political suicide if he were to come up with an unconventional thought during a presidential tour.
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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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I believe in dreams. People should have faith in the songs poets sing.
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And then, just as Wilbur was settling down for his morning nap, he heard again the thin voice that had addressed him the night before. “Salutations!” said the voice. Wilbur jumped to his feet. “Salu-what?” he cried. “Salutations!” repeated the voice.
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A poem compresses much in a small space and adds music, thus heightening its meaning.
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Oh, I never look under the hood.
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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 am still encouraged to go on. I wouldn’t know where else to go.
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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.
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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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The world is full of people who have never, since childhood, met an open doorway with an open mind.
E. B. WHITE