Quotes by E. B. White
A poet dares be just so clear and no clearer... He unzips the veil from beauty, but does not remove it. A poet utterly clear is a trifle glaring.
White, E. B.
Be obscure clearly.
White, E. B.
In a man's middle years there is scarcely a part of the body he would hesitate to turn over to the proper authorities.
White, E. B.
You have been my friend. That in itself is a tremendous thing. I wove my webs for you because I liked you. After all, what's a life anyway? We're born, we live a little while, we die. A spider's life can't help being something of a mess, with all this trapping and eating flies. By helping you, perhaps I was trying to lift up my life a trifle. Heaven knows anyone's life can stand a little of that.
White, E. B.
Writing is both mask and unveiling.
White, E. B.
I believe television is going to be the test of the modern world, and that in this new opportunity to see beyond the range of our vision, we shall discover a new and unbearable disturbance of the modern peace, or a saving radiance in the sky. We shall stand or fall by television, of that I am quite sure.
White, E. B.
Television hangs on the questionable theory that whatever happens anywhere should be sensed everywhere. If everyone is going to be able to see everything, in the long run all sights may lose whatever rarity value they once possessed, and it may well turn out that people, being able to see and hear practically everything, will be specially interested in almost nothing.
White, E. B.
Genius is more often found in a cracked pot than in a whole one.
White, E. B.
New York is to the nation what the white church spire is to the village - the visible symbol of aspiration and faith, the white plume saying the way is up!
White, E. B.
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.
White, E. B.
To perceive Christmas through its wrappings becomes more difficult with every year.
White, E. B.
I am reminded of the advice of my neighbor. "Never worry about your heart till it stops beating."
White, E. B.
A "fraternity" is the antithesis of fraternity. The first... is predicated on the idea of exclusion; the second (that is, the abstract thing) is based on a feeling of total equality.
White, E. B.
I see nothing in space as promising as the view from a Ferris wheel.
White, E. B.