E.B. White Quotes

No one can write decently who is distrustful of the reader's intelligence, or whose attitude is patronizing.

The young writer should learn to spot them: words that at first glance seem freighted with delicious meaning, but that soon burst in the air, leaving nothing but a memory of bright sound.

Winter will pass, the days will lengthen, the ice will melt in the pasture pond. The song sparrow will return and sing, the frogs will awake, the warm wind will blow again. All these sights and sounds and smells will be yours to enjoy, Wilbur — this lovely world, these precious days…

"You have been my friend," replied Charlotte, "That in itself is a tremendous thing."

"To perceive Christmas through its wrapping becomes more difficult with every year. "The Distant Music of the Hounds," 1954"

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

Hope is the thing that is left to us, in a bad time.

This is what youth must figure out:
Girls, love, and living.
The having, the not having,
The spending and giving,
And the meloncholy time of not knowing.

This is what age must learn about:
The ABC of dying.
The going, yet not going,
The loving and leaving,
And the unbearable knowing and knowing

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

Life in the barn was very good- night and day, winter and summer, spring and fall, dull days and bright days. It was the best place to be, thought Wilbur, this warm delicious cellar, with the garrulous geese, the changing seasons, the heat of the sun, the passage of swallows, the nearness of rats, the sameness of sheep, the love of spiders, the smell of manure, and the glory of everything.

"I'm really too young to go out into the world alone," he thought as he lay down

In every queen there's a touch of floozy.

He carried a pencil that put a camera to shame.

Everything gets taken over by big business, I don’t care what line you’re in.

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