The best writing is rewriting.
E. B. WHITEA writer’s style reveals something of his spirit, his habits, his capacites, his bias…it is the Self escaping into the open.
More E. B. White Quotes
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The whole problem is to establish communication with ones self.
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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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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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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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Be obscure clearly! Be wild of tongue in a way we can understand.
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Before the seed there comes the thought of bloom.
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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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Luck is not something you can mention in the presence of self-made men.
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It is quite possible that an animal has spoken to me and that I didn’t catch the remark because I wasn’t paying attention.
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Life is like writing with a pen. You can cross out your past but you can’t erase it.
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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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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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Most people think of peace as a state of Nothing Bad Happening, or Nothing Much Happening. Yet if peace is to overtake us and make us the gift of serenity and well-being, it will have to be the state of Something Good Happening.
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I have one share in corporate Earth, and I am nervous about the management.
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Creation is in part merely the business of forgoing the great and small distractions.
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We should all do what, in the long run, gives us joy, even if it is only picking grapes or sorting the laundry.
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Old age is a special problem for me because I’ve never been able to shed the mental image I have of myself – a lad of about 19.
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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 believe in dreams. People should have faith in the songs poets sing.
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Safety is all well and good: I prefer freedom.
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I am reminded of the advice of my neighbor. “Never worry about your heart till it stops beating.
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Stuart rose from the ditch, climbed into his car, and started up the road that led toward the north…As he peeked ahead into the great land that stretched before him, the way seemed long. But the sky was bright, and he somehow felt he was headed in the right direction.
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Sailors have an expression about the weather: they say the weather is a great bluffer. I guess the same is true of our human society – things can look dark, then a break shows in the clouds, and all is changed.
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People are, if anything, more touchy about being thought silly than they are about being thought unjust.
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No one should come to New York to live unless he is willing to be lucky.
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Mother: It’s broccoli, dear. — Child: I say it’s spinach, and I say the hell with it.
E. B. WHITE