Quotes by E. B. White

Truth is something that I never quite heard, but always overheard.

Explaining a joke is like dissecting a frog. You understand it better but the frog dies in the process.

If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But 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.

To perceive Christmas through its wrappings becomes more difficult with every year.

The world is full of people who have never, since childhood, met an open doorway with an open mind.

We should all do what, in the long run, gives us joy, even if it is only picking grapes or sorting the laundry.

Advice to young writers who want to get ahead without any annoying delays: don't write about Man, write about a man.

All that I hope to say in books, all that I ever hope to say, is that I love the world.

Children are demanding. They are the most attentive, curious, eager, observant, sensitive, quick, and generally congenial readers on earth.

I discovered, to my surprise, that it is possible to be fond of animals without being crazy about them.

A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word on paper.

The best writing is rewriting.

Prejudice is a great time saver. You can form opinions without having to get the facts.

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.

Hang on to your hat. Hang on to your hope. And wind the clock, for tomorrow is another day.

Everything in life is somewhere else, and you get there in a car.

You have been my friend. That in itself is a tremendous thing.

One of the most time-consuming things is to have an enemy.

Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.

Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder.

Life's meaning has always eluded me and I guess it always will. But I love it just the same.

Luck is not something you can mention in the presence of self-made men.

Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but the thing dies in the process and the innards are discouraging to any but the pure scientific mind.

Be obscure clearly.

Writing is an act of faith, not a trick of grammar.

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.

I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world.