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. WHITEThe 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.
More E. B. White Quotes
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The main thing I try to do is write as clearly as I can. I rewrite a good deal to make it clear.
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Safety is all well and good: I prefer freedom.
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There is nothing more likely to start disagreement among people or countries than an agreement.
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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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The best writing is rewriting.
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The rat had no morals, no conscience, no scruples, no consideration, no decency, no milk of rodent kindness, no compunctions, no higher feeling, no friendliness, no anything
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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.
E. B. WHITE -
Be obscure clearly! Be wild of tongue in a way we can understand.
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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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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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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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Democracy is itself, a religious faith. For some it comes close to being the only formal religion they have.
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Trust me, Wilbur. People are very gullible. They’ll believe anything they see in print.
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To achieve style, begin by affecting none.
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Every morning I awake torn between a desire to save the world and an inclination to savor it. This makes it hard to plan the day. But if we forget to savor the world, what possible reason do we have for saving it? In a way, the savoring must come first.
E. B. WHITE