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.
Link to Quote
E. B. White Quotes
Be obscure clearly.
Link to Quote
E. B. White Quotes
I believe that security declines as security machinery expands.
Link to Quote
E. B. White Quotes
In a man's middle years there is scarcely a part of the body he would hesitate to turn over to the proper authorities.
Link to Quote
E. B. White Quotes
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.
Link to Quote
E. B. White Quotes
Writing is both mask and unveiling.
Link to Quote
E. B. White Quotes
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.
Link to Quote
E. B. White Quotes
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.
Link to Quote
E. B. White Quotes
Genius is more often found in a cracked pot than in a whole one.
Link to Quote
E. B. White Quotes
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!
Link to Quote
E. B. White Quotes
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.
Link to Quote
E. B. White Quotes
To perceive Christmas through its wrappings becomes more difficult with every year.
Link to Quote
E. B. White Quotes
I am reminded of the advice of my neighbor. "Never worry about your heart till it stops beating."
Link to Quote
E. B. White Quotes
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.
Link to Quote
E. B. White Quotes
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.
Link to Quote
E. B. White Quotes
I see nothing in space as promising as the view from a Ferris wheel.
Link to Quote
E. B. White Quotes
