Be obscure clearly! Be wild of tongue in a way we can understand.
E. B. WHITELuck is not something you can mention in the presence of self-made men.
More E. B. White Quotes
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No one can write decently who is distrustful of the reader’s intelligence or whose attitude is patronizing.
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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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I have noticed that most men when they enter a barber shop and must wait their turn, drop into a chair and pick up a magazine. I simply sit down and pick up the thread of my sea wanderings, which began more than fifty years ago and is not quite ended.
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Is there anything in the universe more beautiful and protective than the simple complexity of a spider’s web?
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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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Never hurry and never worry!
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Luck is not something you can mention in the presence of self-made men.
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Hang on to your hat. Hang on to your hope. And wind the clock, for tomorrow is another day.
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No one should come to New York to live unless he is willing to be lucky.
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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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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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A right is a responsibility in reverse.
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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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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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Democracy is itself, a religious faith. For some it comes close to being the only formal religion they have.
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Fern was up at daylight, trying to rid the world of injustice. As a result, she now has a pig. A small one to be sure, but nevertheless a pig. It just shows what can happen if a person gets out of bed promptly.
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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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Prejudice is a great time saver. You can form opinions without having to get the facts.
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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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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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A writer’s style reveals something of his spirit, his habits, his capacites, his bias…it is the Self escaping into the open.
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If a man is to be obsessed by something, I suppose a boat is as good as anything, perhaps a bit better than most.
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From morning till night, sounds drift from the kitchen, most of them familiar and comforting. . . . On days when warmth is the most important need of the human heart, the kitchen is the place you can find it; it dries the wet sock, it cools the hot little brain.
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In a free country it is the duty of writers to pay no attention to duty.
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Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder.
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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.
E. B. WHITE