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Creation is in part merely the business of forgoing the great and small distractions.

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
Business
Part
Great
Distractions
Distraction
Merely
Creation
Small

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The living language is like a cowpath: it is the creation of the cows themselves, who, having created it, follow it or depart from it according to their whims or their needs. From daily use, the path undergoes change. A cow is under no obligation to stay
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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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Sailors have an expression about the weather: they say the weather is a great bluffer. I guess the same is true of our human society — things can look dark, then a break shows in the clouds, and all is changed.
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Writing is an act of faith, not a trick of grammar.
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As a writing man, or secretary, I have always felt charged with the safekeeping of all unexpected items of worldly and unworldly enchantment, as though I might be held personally responsible if even a small one were to be lost.
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A writer should tend to lift people up, not lower them down.
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Humour plays close to the big, hot fire, which is the truth, and the reader feels the heat.
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I believe in dreams. People should have faith in the songs poets sing.
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I am reminded of the advice of my neighbor. Never worry about your heart till it stops beating.
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Although there is no substitute for merit in writing, clarity comes closest to being 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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Good deeds never go unpunished.
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I’ve got a new friend, all right. But what a gamble friendship is! Charlotte is fierce, brutal, scheming, bloodthirsty—everything I don’t like. How can I learn to like her, even though she is pretty and, of course, clever?
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A right is a responsibility in reverse.
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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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From morning till night, sounds drift from the kitchen, most of them familiar and comforting. . . . On days when warmth is the most important need of the human heart, the kitchen is the place you can find it it dries the wet sock, it cools the hot little brain.
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The vision of milk and honey, it comes and goes. But the odor of cooking goes on forever.
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Commuters give the city its tidal restlessness, natives give it solidity and continuity, but the settlers give it passion.
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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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A library is a good place to go when you feel bewildered or undecided, for there in a book, you may have your question answered
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