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Diplomacy is the lowest form of politeness because it misquotes the greatest number of people. A nation, like an individual, if it has anything to say, should simply say it.

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
Individual
Lowest
Form
Manners
Anything
Number
Like
Nation
People
Numbers
Simply
Politeness
Greatest
Diplomacy
Nations
Courtesy

More quotes by E. B. White

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Democracy is a request from a War Board, in the middle of a morning in the middle of a war, wanting to know what democracy is.
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A right is a responsibility in reverse.
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In a man's middle years there is scarcely a part of the body he would hesitate to turn over to the proper authorities.
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The circus comes as close to being the world in microcosm as anything I know in a way, it puts all the rest of show business in the shade.
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Early summer days are a jubilee time for birds. In the fields, around the house, in the barn, in the woods, in the swamp - everywhere love and songs and nests and eggs.
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Life's accumulation is more discouraging than life itself, when stirred up.
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I have always felt that the first duty of a writer was to ascend - to make flights, carrying others along if you can manage it. To do this takes courage, even a certain conceit.
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A poet dares to be just so clear and no clearer he approaches lucid ground warily, like a mariner who is determined not to scrape his bottom on anything solid. A poet's pleasure is to withhold a little of his meaning, to intensify by mystification. He unzips the veil from beauty, but does not remove it. A poet utterly clear is a trifle glaring.
E. B. White
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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.
E. B. White
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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.
E. B. White
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It was the best place to be, thought Wilbur, this warm delicious cellar, with the garrulous geese, the changing seasons, the heat of the sun, the passage of swallows, the nearness of rats, the sameness of sheep, the love of spiders, the smell of manure, and the glory of everything.
E. B. White
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Semi-colons only prove that the author has been to college.
E. B. White
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Life is always rich and steady time when you are waiting for something to happen or to hatch.
E. B. White
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It sometimes takes days, even weeks, before a dog's nerves tire. In the case of terriers it can run into months.
E. B. White
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Hang on to your hat. Hang on to your hope. And wind the clock, for tomorrow is another day.
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Prejudice is a great time saver. You can form opinions without having to get the facts.
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Television should be our Lyceum, our Chautauqua, our Minsky's and our Camelot.
E. B. White
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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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new york provides not only a continuing excitation but also a spectacle that is continuing.
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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.
E. B. White