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.
E. B. WHITEI am often mad, but I would hate to be nothing but mad: and I think I would lose what little value I may have as a writer if I were to refuse, as a matter of principle, to accept the warming rays of the sun, and to report them, whenever, and if ever, they
More E. B. White Quotes
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Good deeds never go unpunished.
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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 am always humbled by the infite ingenuity of the Lord, who can make a red barn cast a blue shadow.
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Writing is both mask and unveiling.
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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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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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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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Before the seed there comes the thought of bloom.
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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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When an American family becomes separated from its toothbrushes and combs and pajamas for a few hours it considers that it has had quite an adventure.
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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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Writing is hard work and bad for the health.
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Everything in life is somewhere else, and you get there in a car.
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Well,” said Stuart, “a misspelled word is an abomination in the sight of everyone.
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Extreme cold when it first arrives seems to generate cheerfulness and sociability. For a few hours all life’s dubious problems are dropped in favor of the clear and congenial task of keeping alive.
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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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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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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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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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Only a person who is congenially self-centered has the effrontery and the stamina to write essays
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I believe in dreams. People should have faith in the songs poets sing.
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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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I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.
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Never hurry and never worry!
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One of the most time-consuming things is to have an enemy.
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I admire anybody who has the guts to write anything at all.
E. B. WHITE