Quote

Habitually creative people are prepared to be lucky.

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
Habitually
Prepared
Lucky
Creative
People

More quotes by E. B. White

Image
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.
E. B. White
Image
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.
E. B. White
Image
Humor is like a frog. You can dissect it to see how it works, but by then, it's dead.
E. B. White
Image
When an American family becomes separated from its toothbrushes and combs and pajamas for a few hours it considers that it has had quite an adventure.
E. B. White
Image
In middle life, the human back is spoiling for a technical knockout and will use the flimsiest excuse, even a sneeze, to fall apart.
E. B. White
Image
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.
E. B. White
Image
If I can fool a bug... I can surely fool a man. People are not as smart as bugs.
E. B. White
Image
Never hurry and never worry!
E. B. White
Image
New York is to the nation what the white church spire is to the village - the visible symbol of aspiration and faith, the white plume saying the way is up!
E. B. White
Image
Use the smallest word that does the job.
E. B. White
Image
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
Image
It is easier for a man to be loyal to his club than to his planet the bylaws are shorter, and he is personally acquainted with the other members.
E. B. White
Image
Whatever else an American believes or disbelieves about himself, he is absolutely sure he has a sense of humor.
E. B. White
Image
Writers do not merely reflect and interpret life, they inform and shape life.
E. B. White
Image
Democracy is itself, a religious faith. For some it comes close to being the only formal religion they have.
E. B. White
Image
There is nothing more likely to start disagreement among people or countries than an agreement.
E. B. White
Image
A writer is like a bean plant - he has his little day, and then gets stringy.
E. B. White
Image
I would really rather feel bad in Maine than feel good anywhere else
E. B. White
Image
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.
E. B. White
Image
If sometimes there seems to be a sort of sameness of sound in The New Yorker, it probably can be traced to the magazine's copydesk, which is a marvelous fortress of grammatical exactitude and stylish convention.
E. B. White