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E. B. White

E. B. White Quotes

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Famous E. B. White Quotes

“They just keep trotting back and forth across the bridge thinking there is something better on the other side. If they'd hang head-down at the top of the thing and wait quietly, maybe something good would come along.”

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Book:Charlotte’s Web and other classic animal stories: Charlotte’s Web, The Trumpet of the Swan, Stuart Little
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“Surely the Board knows what democracy is. It is the line that forms on the right. It is the don’t in Don’t Shove. It is the hole in the stuffed shirt through which the sawdust slowly trickles; it is the dent in the high hat. Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half the people are right more than half the time. It is the feeling of privacy in the voting booths, the feeling of communion in the libraries, the feeling of vitality everywhere. Democracy is the score at the beginning of the ninth. It is an idea which hasn’t been disproved yet, a song the words of which have not gone bad. It’s the mustard on the hot dog and the cream in the rationed coffee. Democracy is a request from a War Board, in the middle of a morning in the middle of a war, wanting to know what democracy is.”

WarAmericaDemocracyWorld War IiEssaysNew YorkerWar Board
Book:The Wild Flag: Editorials from the New Yorker on Federal World Government and Other Matters
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“The use of language begins with imitation. The infant imitates the sounds made by its parents; the child imitates first the spoken language, then the stuff of books. The imitative life continues long after the writer is secure in the language, for it is almost impossible to avoid imitating what one admires. Never imitate consciously, but do not worry about being an imitator; take pains instead to admire what is good. Then when you write in a way that comes naturally, you will echo the halloos that bear repeating.”

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Author:E. B. White
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“A library is many things. It's a place to go, to get in out of the rain. It's a place to go if you want to sit and think. But particularly it is a place where books live, and where you can get in touch with other people, and other thoughts, through books. If you want to find out about something, the information is in the reference books---the dictionaries, the encyclopedias, the atlases. If you like to be told a story, the library is the place to go.”

PeopleIfsThinkingWantBookStoriesInformationRainLibraryDictionaryPlaces To GoEncyclopedia
Author:E. B. White
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“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.”

SongHouseFieldsSummerBirdWoodsEggsNestsSwampsBarnsSummer DaysJubilee
Book:Charlotte’s Web and other classic animal stories: Charlotte’s Web, The Trumpet of the Swan, Stuart Little
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“New York blends the gift of privacy with the excitement of participation; and better than most dense communities it succeeds in insulating the individual (if he wants it, and almost everybody wants or needs it) against all enormous and violent and wonderful events that are taking place every minute.”

IfsWantNeedsIndividualCommunityWonderfulMinutesEventsNew YorkSucceedViolentEnormousExcitementPrivacyParticipationDense
Book:Here is New York
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“Of course, it may be that the arts of writing and photography are antithetical. The hope and aim of a word-handler is that he maycommunicate a thought or an impression to his reader without the reader's realizing that he has been dragged through a series of hazardous or grotesque syntactical situations. In photography the goal seems to be to prove beyond a doubt that the cameraman, in his great moment of creation, was either hanging by his heels from the rafters or was wedged under the floor with his lens in a knothole.”

WritingMayHas BeensArtMomentsSeemsCoursesGoalRealizingSituationDoubtCreationReaderProvePhotographyAimSeriesImpressionHeelsLensesGrotesqueGreat MomentsCameramanArt Of WritingRafters
Author:E. B. White
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“Every American, to the last man, lays claim to a "sense" of humor and guards it as his most significant spiritual trait, yet rejects humor as a contaminating element wherever found. America is a nation of comics and comedians; nevertheless, humor has no stature and is accepted only after the death of the perpetrator.”

MenFunnyLastsAmericaSpiritualFoundNationsElementsClaimsLaysAcceptedSignificantComedianRejectsSense Of HumorTraitsNeverthelessStaturePerpetrators
Author:E. B. White
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“Where I would like to discover facts, I find fancy. Where I would like to learn what I did, I learn only what I was thinking. Theyare loaded with opinion, moral thoughts, quick evaluations, youthful hopes and cares and sorrows. Occasionally, they manage to report something in exquisite honesty and accuracy. That is why I have refrained from burning them.”

ThinkingFactsCareMoralOpinionHonestySorrowManageBurningFancyReportsDiariesExquisiteAccuracyLoadedEvaluation
Author:E. B. White
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“Place yourself in the background; write in a way that comes naturally; work from a suitable design; write with nouns and verbs; do not overwrite; do not overstate; avoid the use of qualifiers; do not affect a breezy style; use orthodox spelling; do not explain too much; avoid fancy words; do not take shortcuts as the cost of clarity; prefer the standard to the offbeat; make sure the reader knows who is speaking; do not use dialect; revise and rewrite.”

KnowsWayWritingUseToo MuchStyleDesignReaderCostStandardsBackgroundsClarityFancyOrthodoxSuitableVerbsShortcutsSpellingNounsDialectBreezyOffbeat
Author:E. B. White
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“A schoolchild should be taught grammar - for the same reason that a medical student should study anatomy. Having learned about the exciting mysteries of an English sentence, the child can then go forth and speak and write any damn way he pleases.”

WayShouldWritingChildrenReasonSpeakStudyMysteryStudentsTaughtPleaseExcitingSentencesMedicalDamnGrammarAnatomy
Book:In the Words of E.B. White: Quotations from America's Most Companionable of Writers
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“Government is the thing. Law is the thing. Not brotherhood, not international cooperation, not security councils that can stop war only by waging it... Where does security lie, anyway - security against the thief, a bad man, the murderer? In brotherly love? Not at all. It lies in government.”

MenDoeWarGovernmentLawLyingSecurityInternationalCooperationBrotherhoodThievesMurdererCouncilBad ManBrotherlyBrotherly LoveSecurity CouncilInternational CooperationStop War
Author:E. B. White
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“I discovered a long time ago that writing of the small things of the day, the trivial matters of the heart, the inconsequential but near things of this living, was the only kind of creative work which I could accomplish with any sincerity or grace. As a reporter, I was a flop, because I always came back laden not with facts about the case, but with a mind full of the little difficulties and amusements I had encountered in my travels.”

WritingMindHeartKindLittlesLongMatterFactsCasesCreativeGraceLong TimeDifficultyAccomplishSincerityReportersAmusementSmall ThingsLong Time AgoCreative WorkInconsequentialMatters Of The Heart
Book:The Letters of E. B. White
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“The beginner should approach style warily, realizing that it is himself he is approaching, no other; and he should begin by turning resolutely away from all devices that are popularly believed to indicate style - all mannerisms, tricks, adornments. The approach to style is by way of plainness, simplicity, orderliness, sincerity.”

WayShouldRealizingStyleApproachSimplicityTricksDevicesSincerityBeginnersAdornmentMannerismsPlainnessOrderliness
Book:In the Words of E.B. White: Quotations from America's Most Companionable of Writers
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“The essayist is a self-liberated man, sustained by the childish belief that everything he thinks about, everything that happens to him, is of general interest. He is a fellow who thoroughly enjoys his work, just as people who enjoy bird walks enjoys theirs. Each new excursion of the essayist, each new 'attempt,' differs from the last and takes him into new country. This delights him. Only a person who is congenitally self-centered has the effrontery and the stamina to write essays.”

PeopleThinkingMenWritingPersonsSelfCountryHappensLastsBeliefEnjoyInterestWalksBirdFellowsDelightEssaysSelf CenteredLiberatedStaminaEssayistsExcursions
Book:Essays of E. B. White
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“The Supreme Court said nothing about silliness, but I suspect it may play more of a role than one might suppose. People are, if anything, more touchy about being thought silly than they are about being thought unjust... Probably the first slave ship, with Negroes lying in chains on its decks, seemed commonsensical to the owners who operated it and to the planters who patronized it. But such a vessel would not be in the realm of common sense today. The only sense that is common, in the long run, is the sense of change.”

PeopleIfsFirstsMayLongSaidPlayMightRunningTodayLyingCommonRolesCourtSlaveSillySupremeCommon SenseShipsChainsRealmsOwnersSuspectsLong RunsUnjustSupreme CourtVesselDeckSillinessTouchyPlantersSlave Ships
Author:E. B. White
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“When we think of [John F. Kennedy], he is without a hat, standing in the wind and weather. He was impatient of topcoats and hats, preferring to be exposed, and he was young enough and tough enough to enjoy the cold and the wind of those times.... It can be said of him, as of few men in a like position, that he did not fear the weather, and did not trim his sails, but instead challenged the wind itself, to improve its direction and to cause it to blow more softly and more kindly over the world and its people.”

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Author:E. B. White
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