E. B. White
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.Collection: Power
Prejudice is a great time saver. You can form opinions without having to get the facts.Collection: Time
Writing is an act of faith, not a trick of grammar.Collection: Faith
Genius is more often found in a cracked pot than in a whole one.Collection: Intelligence
I see nothing in space as promising as the view from a Ferris wheel.Collection: Space
When I was a child people simply looked about them and were moderately happy; today they peer beyond the seven seas, bury themselves waist deep in tidings, and by and large what they see and hear makes them unutterably sad.Collection: Sad
The time not to become a father is eighteen years before a war.Collection: Dad
To perceive Christmas through its wrappings becomes more difficult with every year.Collection: Christmas
I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.Collection: Morning
The only sense that is common in the long run, is the sense of change and we all instinctively avoid it.Collection: Change
Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.Collection: Time
Everything in life is somewhere else, and you get there in a car.Collection: Car
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.Collection: Age
Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested and the frog dies of it.Collection: Humor
Writing is hard work and bad for the health.Collection: Health
Whatever else an American believes or disbelieves about himself, he is absolutely sure he has a sense of humor.Collection: Humor
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.Collection: Time
Luck is not something you can mention in the presence of self-made men.Collection: Men
Be obscure clearly.Collection: Funny
A good farmer is nothing more nor less than a handy man with a sense of humus.
I don't know which is more discouraging, literature or chickens.
We should all do what, in the long run, gives us joy, even if it is only picking grapes or sorting the laundry.
The world is full of people who have never, since childhood, met an open doorway with an open mind.
There's no limit to how complicated things can get, on account of one thing always leading to another.
One of the most time-consuming things is to have an enemy.
There is nothing more likely to start disagreement among people or countries than an agreement.
It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer.
I can only assume that your editorial writer tripped over the First Amendment and thought it was the office cat.
Commas in The New Yorker fall with the precision of knives in a circus act, outlining the victim.
I have yet to see a piece of writing, political or non-political, that doesn't have a slant. All writing slants the way a writer leans, and no man is born perpendicular, although many men are born upright.
A writer is like a bean plant - he has his little day, and then gets stringy.
The trouble with the profit system has always been that it was highly unprofitable to most people.
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.
All we need is a meteorologist who has once been soaked to the skin without ill effect. No one can write knowingly of the weather who walks bent over on wet days.
The world organization debates disarmament in one room and, in the next room, moves the knights and pawns that make national arms imperative.
English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment and education - sometimes it's sheer luck, like getting across the street.
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.
Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder.Collection: Beauty
A library is a good place to go when you feel unhappy, for there, in a book, you may find encouragement and comfort. 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. 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.Collection: Inspiring
Life is like writing with a pen. You can cross out your past but you can't erase it.Collection: Writing
Trust me, Wilbur. People are very gullible. They'll believe anything they see in print.Collection: Believe
Every morning I awake torn between a desire to save the world and an inclination to savor it. This makes it hard to plan the day. But if we forget to savor the world, what possible reason do we have for saving it? In a way, the savoring must come first.Collection: Morning
I have one share in corporate Earth, and I am nervous about the management.Collection: Government
Being the owner of Dachshunds, to me a book on dog discipline becomes a volume of inspired humor. Every sentence is a riot. Some day, if I ever get a chance, I shall write a book, or warning, on the character and temperament of the Dachshund and why he can't be trained and shouldn't be. I would rather train a striped zebra to balance an Indian club than induce a Dachshund to heed my slightest command. When I address Fred I never have to raise either my voice or my hopes. He even disobeys me when I instruct him in something he wants to do.Collection: Dog
Hang on to your hat. Hang on to your hope. And wind the clock, for tomorrow is another day.Collection: Inspiring
A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word to paper.Collection: Waiting
Use the smallest word that does the job.Collection: Jobs
Make the work interesting and the discipline will take care of itself.Collection: Work
Reading is the work of the alert mind, is demanding, and under ideal conditions produces finally a sort of ecstasy.Collection: Reading
Be obscure clearly! Be wild of tongue in a way we can understand.Collection: Way