E.B. White Quotes

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

nothing is nothing, then nothing has nothing that is less than it is.

I’m not fooled any more by an ill wind and a light that fails.

I get up every morning determined to both change the world and have one hell of a good time. Sometimes this makes planning my day difficult.

Well,” said Stuart, “a misspelled word is an abomination in the sight of everyone.

In a free country it is the duty of writers to pay no attention to duty. Only under a dictatorship is literature expected to exhibit an harmonious design or an inspirational tone.

"... with men it's rush, rush, rush, every minute. I'm glad I'm a sedentary spider."
"What does sedentary mean?" asked Wilbur.
"Means I sit still a good part of the time and don't go wandering all over creation. I know a good thing when I see it, and my web is a good thing. I stay put and wait for what comes. Gives me a chance to think."

When I address Fred I never have to raise either my voice or my hopes.

straddled the knot, so that it acted as a seat. Then you got up all your nerve, took a deep breath, and jumped. For a second you seemed to be falling to the barn floor far below, but then suddenly the rope would begin to catch you, and you would sail through the barn door going a mile a minute, with the wind whistling in your eyes and ears and hair. Then you would zoom upward into the sky, and look up at the clouds, and the rope would twist and

Shocking writing is like murder: the questions the jury must decide are the questions of motive and intent.

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

Almost all spiders are rather nice-looking.

Life's accumulation is more discouraging than life itself, when stirred up.

If I can fool a bug... I can surely fool a man. People are not as smart as bugs.

...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. Writers do not merely reflect and interpret life, they inform and shape life.