410 Quotes by E.B. White

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

We teach our child many things I don’t believe in, and almost nothing I do believe in. We teach punctuality, particularly if the enforcement of it disturbs the peace. My father taught me, by example, that the greatest defeat in life was to miss a train. Only after many years did I learn that an escaping train carries away with it nothing vital to my health. Railroad trains are such magnificent objects we commonly mistake them for Destiny.

I'm really too young to go out into the world alone," he thought as he lay down

Don't write about Man; write about a man.

The critic leaves at curtain fall To find, in starting to review it, He scarcely saw the play at all For starting to review it.

Life is like writing with a pen. You can cross out your past but you can't erase it.

When an American family becomes separated from its toothbrushes and combs and pajamas for a few hours it considers that it has had quite an adventure.

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.

To achieve style, begin by affecting none.