E.B. White (1899-1985)

Quotes

• A really companionable and indispensable dog is an accident of nature. You can't get it by breeding and you can't buy it with money. It just happens along.

• Whatever else an American believes or disbelieves about himself, he is absolutely sure he has a sense of humor.

• An intelligence service is, in fact, a stupidity service.

• 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.

• Advice to young writers who want to get ahead without annoying delays: don�t write about Man, write about 'a' man.

• Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested and the frog dies of it.

• Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half the time.

• Liberty is never out of bounds or off limits; it spreads wherever it can capture the imagination of men.

• I wake each morning torn between the desire to improve the world and the desire to enjoy it. It makes it hard to plan the day.