410 Quotes by E.B. White

Loneliness is a strange gift.

When my wife’s Aunt Caroline was in her nineties, she lived with us, and she once remarked: ‘Remembrance is sufficient of the beauty we have seen.’ I cherish the remembrance of the beauty I have seen. I cherish the grave, compulsive word.

By comparison with other less hectic days, the city is unconfortable and inconvenient; but New Yorkers tempramentally do not crave comfort and convenience – if they did they would live elsewhere.

Dentistry is more impressive in town-what the rural man calls cleaning the teeth is called “prophylaxis” in New York.

I have a spaniel that defrocked a nun last week. He took hold of the cord. I had hold of the leash. It was like elephants holding tails. Imagine me undressing a nun, even second hand.

This theme interests me because I believe, with the author, that security declines as security machinery expands.

Liberty is never out of bounds or off limits; it spreads wherever it can capture the imagination of men.

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

The night seemed long. Wilbur’s stomach was empty and his mind was full. And when your stomach is empty and your mind is full, it’s always hard to sleep.