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. WHITEIf a man is to be obsessed by something, I suppose a boat is as good as anything, perhaps a bit better than most.
More E. B. White Quotes
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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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I am always humbled by the infite ingenuity of the Lord, who can make a red barn cast a blue shadow.
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Geese are friends to no one, they bad mouth everybody and everything. But they are companionable once you get used to their ingratitude and false accusations.
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To achieve style, begin by affecting none.
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A schoolchild should be taught grammar-for the same reason that a medical student should study anatomy.
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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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When you say something, make sure you have said it. The chances of your having said it are only fair.
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Writing is hard work and bad for the health.
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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.
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Well,” said Stuart, “a misspelled word is an abomination in the sight of everyone.
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English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment and education – sometimes it’s sheer luck, like getting across the street.
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Semi-colons only prove that the author has been to college.
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I see nothing in space as promising as the view from a Ferris wheel.
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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.
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Be obscure clearly! Be wild of tongue in a way we can understand.
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Never hurry and never worry!
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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.
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It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer.
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The world is full of people who have never, since childhood, met an open doorway with an open mind.
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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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Loneliness is a strange gift.
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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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Use the smallest word that does the job.
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There is hardly a waiting room in the east that has not served as my cockpit, whether I was waiting to board a train or to see a dentist. And I am usually still trimming sheets when the train starts or drill begins to whine.
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Trust me, Wilbur. People are very gullible. They’ll believe anything they see in print.
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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