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Sometimes a writer, like an acrobat, must try a trick that is too much for him.

E. B. White

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E. B. White
Age: 86 †
Born: 1899
Born: July 11
Died: 1985
Died: October 1
Editor
Essayist
Journalist
Novelist
Poet
Screenwriter
Writer
Mount Vernon
New York
Elwyn Brooks White
E.B. White
Must
Trying
Much
Like
Acrobat
Trick
Tricks
Writer
Sometimes

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I discovered, though, that once having given a pig an enema there is no turning back, no chance of resuming one of life's more stereotyped roles.
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Einstein is loved because he is gentle, respected because he is wise. Relativity being not for most of us, we elevate its author to a position somewhere between Edison, who gave us a tangible gleam, and God, who gave us the difficult dark and the hope of penetrating it.
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The trouble with the profit system has always been that it was highly unprofitable to most people.
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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.
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It is at a fair that man can be drunk forever on liquor, love, or fights at a fair that your front pocket can be picked by a trotting horse looking for sugar, and your hind pocket by a thief looking for his fortune.
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You have been my friends. That in itself is a tremendous thing.
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When you say something, make sure you have said it. The chances of your having said it are only fair.
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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.
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It isn't silence you can cut with a knife any more, it's interchange of ideas. Intelligent discussion of practically everything is what is breaking up modern marriage.
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The beginner should approach style warily, realizing that it is himself he is approaching, no other and he should begin by turning resolutely away from all devices that are popularly believed to indicate style - all mannerisms, tricks, adornments. The approach to style is by way of plainness, simplicity, orderliness, sincerity.
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The main thing I try to do is write as clearly as I can. I rewrite a good deal to make it clear.
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The whole duty of a writer is to please and satisfy himself, and the true writer always plays to an audience of one.
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If I can fool a bug... I can surely fool a man. People are not as smart as bugs.
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A right is a responsibility in reverse.
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My prose style at this time was a stomach-twisting blend of the Bible, Carl Sandburg, H.L. Mencken, Jeffrey Farnol, Christopher Morley, Samuel Pepys, and Franklin Pierce Adams imitating Samuel Pepys. I was quite apt to throw in a bless the mark at any spot, and to begin a sentence with Lord comma.
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A “fraternity” is the antithesis offraternity. The first (that is, the order or organization) is predicated on the idea of exclusion the second (that is, the abstract thing) is based on a feeling of total equality.
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Old age is a special problem for me because I've never been able to shed the mental image I have of myself - a lad of about 19.
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Wilbur didn't want food, he wanted love.
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Life is always rich and steady time when you are waiting for something to happen or to hatch.
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Advice to young writers wo want to get ahead without any annoying delays: don't write about Man, write about a man.
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