Top 300 E.B. White Quotes (2024 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

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

— E.B. White

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

— E.B. White

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

— E.B. White

11. “Never hurry and never worry!”

— E.B. White

12. “Good deeds never go unpunished.”

— E.B. White

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

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

— E.B. White

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

— E.B. White

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

— E.B. White

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

— E.B. White

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

— E.B. White

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

— E.B. White

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

— E.B. White

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

— E.B. White

24. “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

25. “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

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

— E.B. White

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

— E.B. White

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

— E.B. White

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

— E.B. White

30. “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

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

— E.B. White

32. “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

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

— E.B. White

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

— E.B. White

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

— E.B. White

36. “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

37. “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

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

— E.B. White

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

— E.B. White

40. “Be obscure clearly.”

— E.B. White

41. “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

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

— E.B. White

43. “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

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

— E.B. White

45. “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

46. “Writing is both mask and unveiling.”

— E.B. White

47. “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

48. “Nauseous. Nauseated. The first means “sickening to contemplate”; the second means “sick at the stomach.” Do not, therefore, say “I feel nauseous,” unless you are sure you have that effect on others.”

— E.B. White

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

— E.B. White

50. “Write about it by day and dream about it by night.”

— E.B. White