E B White Quotes

Elwyn Brooks White (1899-1985)

E. B. White was an American writer. He was the author of several highly popular books for children, including Stuart Little, Charlotte’s Web, and The Trumpet of the Swan. (E B White Quotes)

“A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word to paper.”
E. B. White

“Advice to young writers wo want to get ahead without any annoying delays: don’t write about Man, write about a man.”
E. B. White

“After all, what’s a life, anyway? We’re born, we live a little while, we die.”
E. B. White

“All that I hope to say in books, all that I ever hope to say, is that I love the world.”
E. B. White

“Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder.”
E. B. White

“Genius is more often found in a cracked pot than in a whole one.”
E. B. White

“Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but the thing dies in the process and the innards are discouraging to any but the pure scientific mind.”
E. B. White

“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.”
E. B. White

“I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve (or save) the world and a desire to enjoy (or savor) the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.”
E. B. White

“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.”
E. B. White

“I have yet to see a piece of writing, political or non-political, that does not have a slant. All writing slants the way a writer leans, and no man is born perpendicular.”
E. B. White

“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

“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 a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.”
E. B. White

“It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer.”
E. B. White

“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.”
E. B. White

“Life is like writing with a pen. You can cross out your past but you can’t erase it.”
E. B. White

“One of the most time-consuming things is to have an enemy.”
E. B. White

“The crickets felt it was their duty to warn everybody that summertime cannot last for ever. Even on the most beautiful days in the whole year – the days when summer is changing into autumn – the crickets spread the rumour of sadness and change.”
E. B. White

“The world is full of people who have never, since childhood, met an open doorway with an open mind.”
E. B. White

“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.”
E. B. White