Top 300 E.B. White Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Every morning I awake torn between a desire to save the world and an inclination to savor it. This makes it hard to plan the day. But if we forget to savor the world, what possible reason do we have for saving it? In a way, the savoring must come first.”

— E.B. White

Featured in: Enjoy Life Quotes

2. “Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder.”

— E.B. White

3. “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

4. “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

5. “Hang on to your hat. Hang on to your hope. And wind the clock, for tomorrow is another day.”

— E.B. White

6. “A schoolchild should be taught grammar – for the same reason that a medical student should study anatomy.”

— E.B. White

7. “The best writing is rewriting.”

— E.B. White

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

— E.B. White

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

— E.B. White

10. “You’re terrific as far as I am concerned.”

— E.B. White

11. “I would really rather feel bad in Maine than feel good anywhere else.”

— E.B. White

12. “Never hurry and never worry!”

— E.B. White

13. “Good deeds never go unpunished.”

— E.B. White

14. “Safety is all well and good: I prefer freedom.”

— E.B. White

15. “I have one share in corporate Earth, and I am nervous about the management.”

— E.B. White

16. “With the right words, you can change the world.”

— E.B. White

17. “Creation is in part merely the business of forgoing the great and small distractions.”

— E.B. White

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

— E.B. White

19. “Writing is an act of faith, not a trick of grammar.”

— E.B. White

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

— E.B. White

21. “Trust me, Wilbur. People are very gullible. They’ll believe anything they see in print.”

— E.B. White

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

— E.B. White

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

— E.B. White

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

— E.B. White

25. “Geese are friends to no one, they bad mouth everybody and everything. But they are companionable once you get used to their ingratitude and false accusations.”

— E.B. White

26. “We should all do what, in the long run, gives us joy, even if it is only picking grapes or sorting the laundry.”

— E.B. White

27. “A despot doesn’t fear eloquent writers preaching freedom- he fears a drunken poet who may crack a joke that will take hold.”

— E.B. White

28. “Books are good company, in sad times and happy times, for books are people – people who have managed to stay alive by hiding between the covers of a book.”

— E.B. White

29. “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

30. “There’s no limit to how complicated things can get, on account of one thing always leading to another.”

— E.B. White

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

— E.B. White

32. “I admire anybody who has the guts to write anything at all.”

— E.B. White

33. “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

34. “Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested and the frog dies of it.”

— E.B. White

35. “The world is full of talkers, but it is rare to find anyone who listens. And I assure you that you can pick up more information when you are listening than when you are talking.”

— E.B. White

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

— E.B. White

37. “Life is always rich and steady time when you are waiting for something to happen or to hatch.”

— E.B. White

38. “Humour plays close to the big, hot fire, which is the truth, and the reader feels the heat.”

— E.B. White

39. “The rat had no morals, no conscience, no scruples, no consideration, no decency, no milk of rodent kindness, no compunctions, no higher feeling, no friendliness, no anything.”

— E.B. White

40. “Luck is not something you can mention in the presence of self-made men.”

— E.B. White

41. “Children almost always hang onto things tighter than their parents think they will.”

— E.B. White

42. “It is deeply satisfying to win a prize in front of a lot of people.”

— E.B. White

43. “I am still encouraged to go on. I wouldn’t know where else to go.”

— E.B. White

44. “Habitually creative people are prepared to be lucky.”

— E.B. White

45. “Be obscure clearly.”

— E.B. White

46. “Can I have a pig, too, Pop?’ asked Avery. ‘No, I only distribute pigs to early risers,’ said Mr Arable. ‘Fern was up at daylight, trying to rid the world of injustice. As a result, she now has a pig. A small one, to be sure, but nevertheless a pig. It just shows what can happen if a person gets out of bed promptly.”

— E.B. White

47. “Although there is no substitute for merit in writing, clarity comes closest to being one.”

— E.B. White

48. “A library is a good place to go when you feel bewildered or undecided, for there in a book, you may have your question answered.”

— E.B. White

49. “An editor is a person who knows more about writing than writers do but who has escaped the terrible desire to write.”

— E.B. White

50. “Writing is both mask and unveiling.”

— E.B. White