Use the smallest word that does the job.
E. B. WHITELife’s meaning has always eluded me and I guess always will. But I love it just the same.
More E. B. White Quotes
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Good deeds never go unpunished.
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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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“What are they, and where are you?” screamed Wilbur. “Please, please, tell me where you are. And what are salutations?” “Salutations are greetings,” said the voice. “When I say ‘salutations,’ it’s just my fancy way of saying hello or good morning.
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It can destroy an individual, or it can fulfill him, depending a good deal on luck.
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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.
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Everything in life is somewhere else, and you get there in a car.
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The whole duty of a writer is to please and satisfy himself, and the true writer always plays to an audience of one.
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Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.
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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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The world is full of people who have never, since childhood, met an open doorway with an open mind.
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In a man’s middle years there is scarcely a part of the body he would hesitate to turn over to the proper authorities.
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There are roughly three New Yorks. There is, first, the New York of the man or woman who was born here, who takes the city for granted and accepts its size and its turbulence as natural and inevitable. Second, there is the New York of the commuter.
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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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To achieve style, begin by affecting none.
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In a free country it is the duty of writers to pay no attention to duty.
E. B. WHITE