101+ Best E.B. White Quotes From The Author Of Stuart Little And Charlotte's Web
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E. B. White is a famous American writer known for his work on children's books, particularly 'Charlotte's Web'.
Although a writer who shied away from publicity, E. B. White became a prolific writer of books and stories for children. Even now, he is still regarded as one of the best writers of children's fiction that America has ever produced.
So, without much delay, let us take a look at some of the quotes and works of E. B White.
For more quotes, take a look at 'Charlotte's Web' quotes and Charles Dickens quotes.
Famous E.B. White Quotes
Here are some of the more well-known E.B. White quotes on writing and books and other things.
1. "Books are good company, in sad times and happy times, for books are people - people who have managed to stay alive by hiding between the covers of a book."
- E. B. White.
2. "Familiarity is the thing-the sense of belonging. It grants exemption from all evil, all shabbiness."
- E. B. White.
3. "One of the most time-consuming things is to have an enemy."
- E. B. White.
4. "Writing is an act of faith, not a trick of grammar."
- E. B. White.
5. "I see nothing in space as promising as the view from a Ferris wheel."
- E. B. White.
6. "The world is full of people who have never, since childhood, met an open doorway with an open mind."
- E. B. White.
7. "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.
8. "Prejudice is a great time saver. You can form opinions without having to get the facts."
- E. B. White.
9. "A library is a good place to go when you feel unhappy, for there, in a book, you may find encouragement and comfort."
- E. B. White.
10. "Explaining a joke is like dissecting a frog. You understand it better but the frog dies in the process."
- E. B. White.
11. "He (the essayist) is a fellow who thoroughly enjoys his work, just as people who enjoy bird walks enjoys theirs."
- E. B. White.
12. "When you consider that there are a thousand ways to express even the simplest idea, it is no wonder writers are under a great strain."
- E. B. White.
13. "Did it ever occur to you that there's no limit to how complicated things can get, on account of one thing always leading to another?"
- E. B. White.
14. "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."
- E. B. White.
15. "All that I hope to say in books, all that I ever hope to say, is that I love the world."
- E. B. White.
16. "The essayist is a self-liberated man, sustained by the childish belief that everything he thinks about, everything that happens to him, is of general interest."
- E. B. White.
17. "I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve (or save) the world and a desire to enjoy (or savor) the world. This makes it hard to plan the day."
- E. B. White.
18. "Children hold spring so tightly in their brown fists-just as grownups, who are less sure of it, hold it in their hearts."
- E. B. White.
19. "No matter what changes take place in the world, or in me, nothing ever seems to disturb the face of spring."
- E. B. White.
20. "Everything in life is somewhere else, and you get there in a car."
- E. B. White.
Best E.B. White 'Charlotte's Web' Quotes
These are the quotes from the famed children's book 'Charlotte's Web'.
21. "It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer."
- E. B. White, 'Charlotte's Web'.
22. "I wove my webs for you because I liked you. After all, what's a life, anyway? We're born, we live a little while, we die."
- E. B. White, 'Charlotte's Web'.
23. "Always be on the watch for the coming of wonders."
- E. B. White, 'Charlotte' Web'.
24. "No pig ever had truer friends, and he realized that friendship is one of the most satisfying things in the world."
- E. B. White, 'Charlotte's Web'.
25. "Avery heard nothing but the applause. He liked being a clown in a ring, with everybody watching, in front of a grandstand."
- E. B. White, 'Charlotte's Web'.
26. "If I can fool a bug, I can surely fool a man. People are not as smart as bugs."
- E. B. White, 'Charlotte's Web'.
27. "Good things come to those who find it and shove it in their mouth!"
- E. B. White, 'Charlotte's Web'.
28. "People believe almost anything they see in print."
- E. B. White, 'Charlotte's Web'.
29. "An hour of freedom is worth a barrel of slops."
- E. B. White, 'Charlotte's Web'.
30. "I don't understand it, and I don't like what I can't understand."
- E. B. White, 'Charlotte's Web'.
31. "One thing is certain, he has a most unattractive personality. He is too familiar, too noisy, and he cracks weak jokes."
- E. B. White, 'Charlotte's Web'.
32. "Wilbur didn't want food, he wanted love. He wanted a friend - someone who would play with him."
- E. B. White, 'Charlotte's Web'.
33. "A spider's life can't help being something of a mess, with all this trapping and eating flies."
- E. B. White, 'Charlotte's Web'.
34. "Trust me, Wilbur. People are very gullible. They'll believe anything they see in print."
- E. B. White, 'Charlotte's Web'.
35. "The crickets felt it was their duty to warn everybody that summertime cannot last forever."
- E. B. White, 'Charlotte's Web'.
36. "It is not easy to look radiant, but Wilbur threw himself into it with a will."
- E. B. White, 'Charlotte's Web'.
37. "Go down through the orchard and stroll in the woods! The world is a wonderful place when you're young."
- E. B. White, 'Charlotte's Web'.
38. "Children almost always hang onto things tighter than their parents think they will."
- E. B. White, 'Charlotte's Web'.
39. "By helping you, perhaps I was trying to lift up my life a trifle. Heaven knows anyone's life can stand a little of that."
- E. B. White, 'Charlotte's Web'.
40. "You have been my friend. That in itself is a tremendous thing."
- E. B. White, 'Charlotte's Web'.
Inspirational Quotes From E. B. White
These are some E. B. White quotes that are sure to inspire you.
41. "We should all do what, in the long run, gives us joy, even if it is only picking grapes or sorting the laundry."
- E. B. White.
42. "Habitually creative people are prepared to be lucky."
- E. B. White.
43. "Everything he kept saying is something it isn't. And everybody is always somewhere else."
- E. B. White.
44. "Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time."
- E. B. White.
45. "If a man is in health, he doesn't need to take anybody else's temperature to know where he is going."
- E. B. White.
46. "Hang on to your hat. Hang on to your hope. And wind the clock, for tomorrow is another day."
- E. B. White.
47. "A despot doesn't fear eloquent writers preaching freedom — he fears a drunken poet who may crack a joke that will take hold."
- E. B. White.
48. "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."
- E. B. White.
49. "Delay is natural to a writer. Delay is instinctive with him."
- E. B. White.
50. "A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word to paper."
- E. B. White.
51. "Life's meaning has always eluded me and I guess it always will. But I love it just the same."
- E. B. White.
52. "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.
53. "Writers care greatly how a thing is said - it makes all the difference."
- E. B. White.
54. "The terror of the atom age is not the violence of the new power but the speed of man's adjustment to it – the speed of his acceptance."
- E. B. White.
55. "Loneliness is a strange gift."
- E. B. White.
56. "It, democracy, is the feeling of privacy in the voting booths, the feeling of communion in the libraries, the feeling of vitality everywhere."
- E. B. White.
57. "Reading is the work of the alert mind, is demanding, and under ideal conditions produces finally a sort of ecstasy."
- E. B. White.
58. "Necessity first mothered invention. Now invention has little ones of her own, and they look just like grandma."
- E. B. White.
59. "I admire anybody who has the guts to write anything at all."
- E. B. White.
60. "Life is like writing with a pen. You can cross out your past but you can't erase it."
- E. B. White.
'Stuart Little' Quotes From E.B. White
Scroll down to take a look at our E. B. White quotes from the classic children's book 'Stuart Little' set in the city of New York.
61. "Stuart was a great help to his parents and to his brother George. He was so small that he could do many useful things and was always ready to help."
- E. B. White, 'Stuart Little'.
62. "Before he was many days old he was not only looking like a mouse but acting like one, too—wearing a gray hat and carrying a small cane."
- E. B. White, 'Stuart Little'.
63. "'There’s something about north,' he said, 'something that sets it apart from all other directions. A person who is heading north is not making any mistake, in my opinion.'"
- E. B. White, 'Stuart Little'.
64. "I sometimes think I’ve got too much self-control for my own good."
- Snowbell, 'Stuart Little'.
65. "In the north, I have eaten my lunch in pastures rank with ferns and junipers, all under fair skies with a wind blowing."
- Stuart, 'Stuart Little'.
66. "Not every doctor can look into a mouse's ear without laughing."
- E. B. White, 'Stuart Little'.
67. "Unlike most babies, Stuart could walk as soon as he was born."
- E. B. White, 'Stuart Little'.
68. "The home of the Little family was a pleasant place near a park in New York City."
- E. B. White, 'Stuart Little'.
69. "Live and learn."
- Stuart, 'Stuart Little'.
70. "He wiped his face with his handkerchief, for he was quite warm from the exertion of being Chairman of the World."
- E. B. White, 'Stuart Little'.
71. "The doctor was delighted with Stuart and said that it was very unusual for an American family to have a mouse."
- E. B. White, 'Stuart Little'.
72. "I think it might embarrass Stuart to hear mice mentioned in such a belittling manner."
- Mrs. Little, 'Stuart Little'.
73. "When Mrs. Frederick C. Little’s second son arrived, everybody noticed that he was not much bigger than a mouse. The truth of the matter was, the baby looked very much like a mouse in every way."
- E. B. White, 'Stuart Little'.
74. "'Well,' said Stuart, 'a misspelled word is an abomination in the sight of everyone.'"
- E. B. White, 'Stuart Little'.
75. "There’s just something in me that doesn’t trust a cat."
- Stuart, 'Stuart Little'.
E.B. White 'Trumpet Of The Swan' Quotes
Take a look at some of the E.B. White book quotes from 'Trumpet Of The Swan'.
76. "Sam was not a sly boy, but he was odd in one respect: he liked to keep things to himself."
- E. B. White.
77. "I assure you that you can pick up more information when you are listening than when you are talking."
- E. B. White.
78. "Every wild creature within a mile and a half of the pond heard the trumpeting of the swans."
- E. B. White.
79. "Sam always felt happy when he was in a wild place among wild creatures."
- E. B. White.
80. "If I have to go to the ends of the earth to find a trumpet for our young son, I shall find it at last and bring it home to Louis."
- E. B. White.
81. "Enjoy life; learn to fly! Eat well; drink well! Use your ears; use your eyes!"
- E. B. White.
82. "Remember that the world is full of youngsters who have some sort of handicap that they must overcome."
- E. B. White.
83. "Tonight I heard Louis's horn. My father heard it, too."
- E. B. White.
84. "'The sky,' he wrote on his slate, 'is my living room. The woods are my parlor. The lonely lake is my bath. I can't remain behind a fence all my life.'"
- E. B. White.
85. "You have a good father, Louis. I hope nothing happens to him."
- E. B. White.
86. "The grain man wondered whether he had been dreaming or whether he had really seen a swan write words on a slate."
- E. B. White.
87. "Like all fathers, the cob wanted to show off his children to somebody. So he led the cygnets to where Sam was."
- E. B. White.
88. "I don’t know of anything in the entire world more wonderful to look at than a nest with eggs in it."
- E. B. White.
89. "Besides, my life is a catastrophe. It's a catastrophe to be without a voice."
- E. B. White.
90. "The boy was gone—perhaps he would never come back."
- E. B. White.
91. "An egg, because it contains life, is the most perfect thing there is."
- E. B. White.
92. "He always ended by asking himself a question so he would have something to think about while falling asleep."
- E. B. White.
93. "'This is my moment,' thought Louis. 'The time has come for me to waken my true love.'"
- E. B. White.
94. "I never knew flying could be such fun. This is great. This is sensational."
- E. B. White.
95. "Swans must be cheerful, not sad; graceful, not awkward; brave, not cowardly."
- E. B. White.
96. "There is nothing in all the world I like better than the trumpet of the swan."
- E. B. White.
97. "He thought he had never seen such a beautiful young female swan."
- E. B. White.
98. "The cygnets stared at it. They just stared and stared. Words on a slate meant nothing to them."
- E. B. White.
99. "Welcome to the world that contains this lonely pond, this splendid marsh, unspoiled and wild."
- E. B. White.
100. "The pond rang with the trumpet sounds - sounds of triumph over the fox, sounds of victory and gladness."
- E. B. White.
101. "As she sat there, with her husband, the cob, floating gracefully nearby, she had a strange feeling that she was being watched."
- E. B. White.
102. "The world is full of talkers, but it is rare to find anyone who listens."
- E. B. White.
103. "Whether you like him or not, he must be treated with respect."
- E. B. White.
104. "Safety is all well and good: I prefer freedom."
- E. B. White.
105. "In the spring of the year, nest-building is uppermost in a bird’s mind: it is the most important thing there is."
- E. B. White.
Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for E. B. White quotes then why not take a look at Lewis Carroll quotes or Roald Dahl quotes?
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Bachelor of Arts specializing in English, Master of Arts specializing in English
Rajnandini RoychoudhuryBachelor of Arts specializing in English, Master of Arts specializing in English
With a Master of Arts in English, Rajnandini has pursued her passion for the arts and has become an experienced content writer. She has worked with companies such as Writer's Zone and has had her writing skills recognized by publications such as The Telegraph. Rajnandini is also trilingual and enjoys various hobbies such as music, movies, travel, philanthropy, writing her blog, and reading classic British literature.
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