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Although there is no substitute for merit in writing, clarity comes closest to being one.

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
Although
Comes
Writing
Substitute
Substitutes
Closest
Clarity
Merit

More quotes by E. B. White

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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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In middle life, the human back is spoiling for a technical knockout and will use the flimsiest excuse, even a sneeze, to fall apart.
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In every queen there's a touch of floozy.
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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.
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In a free country it is the duty of writers to pay no attention to duty. Only under a dictatorship is literature expected to exhibit an harmonious design or an inspirational tone.
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It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer.
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I don't understand it, and I don't like what I don't understand.
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There is nothing more likely to start disagreement among people or countries than an agreement.
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When my wife's Aunt Caroline was in her nineties, she lived with us, and she once remarked: 'Remembrance is sufficient of the beauty we have seen.' I cherish the remembrance of the beauty I have seen. I cherish the grave, compulsive word.
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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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Life is always rich and steady time when you are waiting for something to happen or to hatch.
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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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Semi-colons only prove that the author has been to college.
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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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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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Wilbur burst into tears. I dont want to die, he moaned. I want to stay alive, right here in my comfortable manure pile with all my friends. I want to breathe the beautiful air and lie in the beautiful sun.
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As long as there is one upright man, as long as there is one compassionate woman, the contagion may spread and the scene is not desolate. Hope is the thing that is left us in a bad time.
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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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Habitually creative people are prepared to be lucky.
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A candidate could easily commit political suicide if he were to come up with an unconventional thought during a presidential tour.
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