Elwyn Brooks White (July 11, 1899 – October 1, 1985) was an American writer. He was the author of several highly popular books for children, including Stuart Little (1945), Charlotte’s Web (1952), and The Trumpet of the Swan (1970). Surely, our collection of these E.B. White Quotes will inspire writer within you.
One of the most time-consuming things is to have an enemy.
– E. B. White
E. B. White Quotes
1. “The world is full of people who have never, since childhood, met an open doorway with an open mind.” – E. B. White
2. “Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder.” – E. B. White
3. “If I can fool a bug… I can surely fool a man. People are not as smart as bugs.” – E. B. White
4. “We should all do what, in the long run, gives us joy, even if it is only picking grapes or doing laundry.” – E. B. White
5. “Life is always a rich and steady time when you are waiting for something to happen or to hatch.” – E. B. White
6. “Good things come to those who find it and shove it in their mouth!” – E. B. White
7. “But real life is only one kind of life—there is also the life of the imagination.” – E. B. White
8. “A mistake is simply another way of doing things.” – E. B. White
9. “Genius is more often found in a cracked pot than in a whole one.” – E. B. White
10. “I admire anybody who has the guts to write anything at all.” – E. B. White
11. “It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer.” – E. B. White
12. “Writing is both mask and unveiling.” – E. B. White
13. “Life is like writing with a pen. You can cross out your past but you can’t erase it.” – E. B. White
14. “Writing is one way to go about thinking, and the practice and habit of writing not only drain the mind but supply it, too.” – E. B. White
15. “Habitually creative people are prepared to be lucky.” – E. B. White
16. “Most people believe almost anything they see in print.” – E. B. White
17. “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
18. “Writing is an act of faith, not a trick of grammar.” – E. B. White
19. “A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word to paper.” – E. B. White
20. “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
21. “Luck is not something you can mention in the presence of self-made men.” – E. B. White
22. “Hang on to your hat. Hang on to your hope. And wind the clock, for tomorrow is another day.” – E. B. White
23. “Creation is in part merely the business of forgoing the great and small distractions.” – E. B. White
24. “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
25. “Reading is the work of the alert mind, is demanding, and under ideal conditions produces finally a sort of ecstasy.” – E. B. White
26. “Don’t write about Man; write about a man.” – E. B. White
27. “Make the work interesting and the discipline will take care of itself.” – E. B. White
28. “I am always humbled by the infite ingenuity of the Lord, who can make a red barn cast a blue shadow.” – E. B. White
29. “Use the smallest word that does the job.” – E. B. White
30. “Prejudice is a great time saver. You can form opinions without having to get the facts.” – E. B. White
31. “Commuters give the city its tidal restlessness, natives give it solidity and continuity, but the settlers give it passion.” – E. B. White
32. “Necessity first mothered invention. Now invention has little ones of her own, and they look just like grandma.” – E. B. White
33. “The only sense that is common in the long run, is the sense of change and we all instinctively avoid it.” – E. B. White
34. “Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time” – E. B. White
35. “A man can do anything he wants to do in this world, at least if he wants to do it badly enough.” – E. B. White
36. “Semi-colons only prove that the author has been to college.” – E. B. White
37. “A writer’s style reveals something of his spirit, his habits, his capacites, his bias…it is the Self escaping into the open.” – E. B. White
38. “Writers do not merely reflect and interpret life, they inform and shape life.” – E. B. White
39. “No one can write decently who is distrustful of the reader’s intelligence or whose attitude is patronizing.” – E. B. White
40. “Once in everyone’s life there is apt to be a period when he is fully awake, instead of half-asleep.” – E. B. White
