Quote

The essayist . . . can pull on any sort of shirt, be any sort of person, according to his mood or his subject matter - philosopher, scold, jester, raconteur, confidant, pundit, devil's advocate, enthusiast.

E. B. White

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Subject
Pundits
Devil
Advocate
Pundit
Subjects
Shirt
Essayist
Philosophy
Shirts
Scold
Sort
Pull
Confidant
Persons
Philosopher
Enthusiast
Person
According
Jester
Matter
Mood
Essayists

More quotes by E. B. White

Image
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
Image
It seemed to me that I should have a desk, even though I had no real need for a desk. I was afraid that if I had no desk in my room my life would seem too haphazard.
E. B. White
Image
The critic leaves at curtain fall To find, in starting to review it, He scarcely saw the play at all For starting to review it.
E. B. White
Image
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.
E. B. White
Image
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.
E. B. White
Image
Never hurry and never worry!
E. B. White
Image
I am still encouraged to go on. I wouldn't know where else to go.
E. B. White
Image
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.
E. B. White
Image
Use the smallest word that does the job.
E. B. White
Image
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.
E. B. White
Image
Life's accumulation is more discouraging than life itself, when stirred up.
E. B. White
Image
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.
E. B. White
Image
It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer.
E. B. White
Image
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
E. B. White
Image
Why did you do all this for me?' he asked. 'I don't deserve it. I've never done anything for you.' 'You have been my friend,' replied Charlotte. 'That in itself is a tremendous thing.
E. B. White
Image
Habitually creative people are prepared to be lucky.
E. B. White
Image
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.
E. B. White
Image
I have just been refining the room in which I sit, yet I sometimes doubt that a writer should refine or improve his workroom by so much as a dictionary: one thing leads to another and the first thing you know he has a stuffed chair and is fast asleep in it.
E. B. White
Image
All poets who, when reading from their own works,m experience a choked feeling, are major. For that matter, all poets who read from their own works are major, whether they choke or not.
E. B. White
Image
Half a man's life is devoted to what he calls improvements, yet the original had some quality which is lost in the process.
E. B. White