15 Wonderful Quotes from E.B. White

1. “Are my stories true, you ask? No, they are imaginary tales … But real life is only one kind of life — there is also the life of the imagination.”

2. “You have been my friend … That in itself is a tremendous thing.” (From Charlotte’s Web)

3. “One of the most time-consuming things is to have an enemy.”

4. “Writing is an act of faith, not a trick of grammar.”

5. “It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer.” (From Charlotte’s Web)

6. “All that I hope to say in books, all that I ever hope to say, is that I love the world.”

7. “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.”

8. “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.” (From Charlotte’s Web)

9. “Hang on to your hat. Hang on to your hope. And wind the clock, for tomorrow is another day.”

10. “Anyone who writes down to children is simply wasting his time. You have to write up, not down. Children are demanding. They are the most attentive, curious, eager, observant, sensitive, quick, and generally congenial readers on earth. They accept, almost without question, anything you present them with, as long as it is presented honestly, fearlessly, and clearly.”

11. “If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But 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.”

12. “Delay is natural to a writer. He is like a surfer—he bides his time, waits for the perfect wave on which to ride in. Delay is instinctive with him. He waits for the surge (of emotion? of strength? of courage?) that will carry him along.”

13. “Humor can be dissected, as a frog can, but the thing dies in the process and the innards are discouraging to any but the pure scientific mind.”

14. “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.”

15. “Life’s meaning has always eluded me and I guess it always will. But I love it just the same.”