E. B. White Quotes

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

It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer.

All we need is a meteorologist who has once been soaked to the skin without ill effect. No one can write knowingly of the weather who walks bent over on wet days.

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.

As long as there is one upright man, as long as there is one compassionate woman, the contagion may spread and the scene is not desolate. Hope is the thing that is left us in a bad time.

Trust me, Wilbur. People are very gullible. They'll believe anything they see in print.

Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder.

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.

Being the owner of Dachshunds, to me a book on dog discipline becomes a volume of inspired humor. Every sentence is a riot. Some day, if I ever get a chance, I shall write a book, or warning, on the character and temperament of the Dachshund and why he can't be trained and shouldn't be. I would rather train a striped zebra to balance an Indian club than induce a Dachshund to heed my slightest command. When I address Fred I never have to raise either my voice or my hopes. He even disobeys me when I instruct him in something he wants to do.

A library is a good place to go when you feel unhappy, for there, in a book, you may find encouragement and comfort. A library is a good place to go when you feel bewildered or undecided, for there, in a book, you may have your question answered. Books are good company, in sad times and happy times, for books are people - people who have managed to stay alive by hiding between the covers of a book.

Books are good company, in sad times and happy times, for books are people-- people who have managed to stay alive by hiding between the covers of a book.

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

It's hard to know when to respond to the seductiveness of the world and when to respond to its challenge. 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 the desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.

Wilbur never forgot Charlotte. Although he loved her children and grandchildren dearly, none of the new spiders ever quite took her place in his heart. She was in a class by herself. It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer. Charlotte was both.

Genius is more often found in a cracked pot than in a whole one.

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

English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment and education - sometimes it's sheer luck, like getting across the street.

Our vegetable garden is coming along well, with radishes and beans up, and we are less worried about revolution that we used to be.

Reading is the work of the alert mind, is demanding, and under ideal conditions produces finally a sort of ecstasy.

Familiarity is the thing-the sense of belonging. It grants exemption from all evil, all shabbiness.

You have been my friend. That in itself is a tremendous thing. I wove my webs for you because I liked you. After all, what's a life, anyway? We're born, we live a little while, we die. A spider's life can't help being something of a mess, with all this trapping and eating flies. By helping you, perhaps I was trying to lift up my life a trifle. Heaven knows anyone's life can stand a little of that.

I am always humbled by the infite ingenuity of the Lord, who can make a red barn cast a blue shadow.

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

Life is like writing with a pen. You can cross out your past but you can't erase it.

Make the work interesting and the discipline will take care of itself.

Use the smallest word that does the job.

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

Anyone who writes down to children is simply wasting his time. You have to write up, not down. Children are demanding. They are the most attentive, curious, eager, observant, sensitive, quick, and generally congenial readers on earth.... Children are game for anything. I throw them hard words and they backhand them across the net.

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

In a man's middle years there is scarcely a part of the body he would hesitate to turn over to the proper authorities.

There is nothing more likely to start disagreement among people or countries than an agreement.

A despot doesn't fear eloquent writers preaching freedom- he fears a drunken poet who may crack a joke that will take hold.

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.

I have one share in corporate Earth, and I am nervous about the management.

Why did you do all this for me?' he asked. 'I don't deserve it. I've never done anything for you.' 'You have been my friend,' replied Charlotte. 'That in itself is a tremendous thing.

I admire anybody who has the guts to write anything at all.

I see nothing in space as promising as the view from a Ferris wheel.

Creation is in part merely the business of forgoing the great and small distractions.

A man is not expected to love his country, lest he make an ass of himself. Yet our country, seen through the mists of smog, is curiously lovable, in somewhat the way an individual who has got himself into an unconscionable scrape seems lovable - or at least deserving of support.

Early summer days are a jubilee time for birds. In the fields, around the house, in the barn, in the woods, in the swamp - everywhere love and songs and nests and eggs.

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.

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.

The city is like poetry; it compresses all life, all races and breeds, into a small island and adds music and the accompaniment of internal engines.

Geese are friends to no one, they bad mouth everybody and everything. But they are companionable once you get used to their ingratitude and false accusations.

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.

I am pessimistic about the human race because it is too ingenious for its own good. Our approach to nature is to beat it into submission. We would stand a better chance of survival if we accommodated ourselves to this planet and viewed it appreciatively instead of skeptically and dictatorially.

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.

I’ve got a new friend, all right. But what a gamble friendship is! Charlotte is fierce, brutal, scheming, bloodthirsty—everything I don’t like. How can I learn to like her, even though she is pretty and, of course, clever?

I am reminded of the advice of my neighbor. "Never worry about your heart till it stops beating.

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.