Quotes by E. B. White

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.

— E. B. White

Happiness

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

— E. B. White

Wisdom

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

— E. B. White

Wisdom

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.

— E. B. White

Hope

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

— E. B. White

Friendship

Be obscure clearly.

— E. B. White

Wisdom

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

— E. B. White

Life

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

— E. B. White

Wisdom

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

— E. B. White

Happiness

I can only assume that your editorial writer tripped over the First Amendment and thought it was the office cat.

— E. B. White

Wisdom

A good farmer is nothing more nor less than a handy man with a sense of humus.

— E. B. White

Wisdom

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

— E. B. White

Wisdom

Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested and the frog dies of it.

— E. B. White

Wisdom

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

— E. B. White

Life

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

— E. B. White

Wisdom

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

— E. B. White

Education

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.

— E. B. White

Wisdom

Commas in The New Yorker fall with the precision of knives in a circus act, outlining the victim.

— E. B. White

Wisdom

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

— E. B. White

Wisdom

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

— E. B. White

Wisdom

The trouble with the profit system has always been that it was highly unprofitable to most people.

— E. B. White

Wisdom

I don't know which is more discouraging, literature or chickens.

— E. B. White

Wisdom

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

— E. B. White

Wisdom

There's no limit to how complicated things can get, on account of one thing always leading to another.

— E. B. White

Wisdom