Quotations from

E. B. White

About

Picture of E. B. White

Elwyn Brooks White (July 11, 1899 – October 1, 1985) was an American writer, essayist, and a contributing editor for The New Yorker magazine. He was also the author of highly popular books for children: Stuart Little (1945), Charlotte's Web (1952), and The Trumpet of the Swan (1970).

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E. B. White is sometimes cited as:

Quotes from 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 (or save) the world and a desire to enjoy (or savor) the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.

—E. B. White

People are, if anything, more touchy about being thought silly than they are about being thought unjust.

—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

Be obscure clearly.

—E. B. White

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

—E. B. White

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

—E. B. White

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

—E. B. White

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

—E. B. White

The time not to become a father is eighteen years before a war.

—E. B. White

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

—E. B. White

The only sense that is common in the long run, is the sense of change-and we all instinctively avoid it.

—E. B. White

Democracy means government by discussion, but it is only effective if you can stop people talking.

—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

The time in our own life when we came closest to being convinced by silence was one time at sea in a light fall of snow. We heard nothing — no gravel, no wind, no waves, no wolves, no bell buoy. It was convincing and it was beautiful.

—E. B. White

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

—E. B. White