https://wist.info Wish I'd Said That! Mon, 31 Aug 2026 21:48:37 +0000 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.4 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.4 https://wist.info/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/little-w-little-box-60x60.jpg https://wist.info 32 32 43606282 https://wist.info/white-eb/62544/ https://wist.info/white-eb/62544/#respond Fri, 11 Aug 2023 15:50:32 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=62544 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 nineteen.

E. B. White (1899–1985) American author, critic, humorist [Elwyn Brooks White]
“E. B. White: Notes and Comment by Author,” interview by Israel Shenker, New York Times (1969-07-11)
    (Source)

On his 70th birthday. ]]> https://wist.info/white-eb/62544/feed/ 0 62544 https://wist.info/white-eb/32790/ https://wist.info/white-eb/32790/#respond Thu, 25 Feb 2016 14:38:03 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=32790 I am inordinately proud these days of the quill, for it has shown itself, historically, to be the hypodermic which inoculates men and keeps the germ of freedom always in circulation, so that there are individuals in every time in every land who are the carriers, the Typhoid Mary’s, capable of infecting others by mere contact and example. These persons are feared by every tyrant — who shows his fear by burning the books and destroying the individuals.

E. B. White (1899–1985) American author, critic, humorist [Elwyn Brooks White]
“Freedom” (Jul 1940) ]]> https://wist.info/white-eb/32790/feed/ 0 32790 https://wist.info/white-eb/4147/ https://wist.info/white-eb/4147/#respond Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=4147 Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.

E. B. White (1899–1985) American author, critic, humorist [Elwyn Brooks White]
“Notes and Comments,” New Yorker (3 Jul 1943)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/white-eb/4147/feed/ 0 4147 https://wist.info/white-eb/28316/ https://wist.info/white-eb/28316/#respond Mon, 16 Feb 2015 14:45:05 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=28316 Humor can be dissected, as a frog can, but the thing dies in the process and the innards are discouraging to any but the purely scientific mind.

E. B. White (1899–1985) American author, critic, humorist [Elwyn Brooks White]
“The Preaching Humorist,” The Saturday Review of Literature (1941-10-18) [with Katherine White]
    (Source)

The apparent origin of "Analyzing humor is a bit like dissecting a frog: You learn how it works but you end up with a dead frog" (and variants).

Also attributed to Mark Twain (not found in his writing) and André Maurois (who said something similar in 1960). See here for more discussion. ]]> https://wist.info/white-eb/28316/feed/ 0 28316 https://wist.info/white-eb/4142/ https://wist.info/white-eb/4142/#respond Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=4142 It is easier for a man to be loyal to his club than to his planet; the by-laws are shorter, and he is personally acquainted with the other members.

E. B. White (1899–1985) American author, critic, humorist [Elwyn Brooks White]
(Attributed) ]]> https://wist.info/white-eb/4142/feed/ 0 4142 https://wist.info/white-eb/4143/ https://wist.info/white-eb/4143/#respond Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=4143 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 the world, and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.

E. B. White (1899–1985) American author, critic, humorist [Elwyn Brooks White]
(Attributed) ]]> https://wist.info/white-eb/4143/feed/ 0 4143 https://wist.info/white-eb/4144/ https://wist.info/white-eb/4144/#respond Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=4144 We should all do what, in the long run, gives us joy, even if it is only picking grapes or sorting laundry.

E. B. White (1899–1985) American author, critic, humorist [Elwyn Brooks White]
(Attributed) ]]> https://wist.info/white-eb/4144/feed/ 0 4144 https://wist.info/white-eb/4145/ https://wist.info/white-eb/4145/#respond Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=4145 I have one share in corporate Earth, and I am nervous about the management.

E. B. White (1899–1985) American author, critic, humorist [Elwyn Brooks White]
(Attributed) ]]> https://wist.info/white-eb/4145/feed/ 0 4145 https://wist.info/white-eb/4146/ https://wist.info/white-eb/4146/#respond Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=4146 Weather is a great bluffer. I guess the same is true of our human society — things can look dark, then a break shows in the clouds, and all is changed.

E. B. White (1899–1985) American author, critic, humorist [Elwyn Brooks White]
(Attributed) ]]> https://wist.info/white-eb/4146/feed/ 0 4146 https://wist.info/white-eb/5660/ https://wist.info/white-eb/5660/#respond Tue, 26 Feb 2008 18:59:57 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=5660 I get up every morning determined to both change the world and have one hell of a good time. Sometimes this makes planning my day difficult.

E. B. White (1899–1985) American author, critic, humorist [Elwyn Brooks White]
(Attributed) ]]> https://wist.info/white-eb/5660/feed/ 0 5660 https://wist.info/white-eb/84790/ https://wist.info/white-eb/84790/#respond Thu, 02 Jul 2026 05:48:44 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=84790 When liberty’s position is challenged, artists and writers are the ones who first take up the sword. They do so without persuasion, for the battle is peculiarly their own. In the nature of things, a person engaged in the flimsy business of expressing himself on paper is dependent on the large general privilege of being heard. Any intimation that this privilege may be revoked throws a writer into a panic. His is a double allegiance to freedom — an intellectual one springing from the conviction that pure thought has a right to function unimpeded, and a selfish one springing from his need, as a breadwinner, to be allowed to speak his piece.

E. B. White (1899–1985) American author, critic, humorist [Elwyn Brooks White]
Essay (1939-01), “One Man’s Meat,” Harper’s Magazine, Vol. 178
    (Source)

When collected in his book, One Man's Meat (1944), the essay was renamed "Salt Water Farm." Sometimes the excerpted third section of the essay is referred to as "The Duty of Writers." ]]> https://wist.info/white-eb/84790/feed/ 0 84790 https://wist.info/white-eb/84883/ https://wist.info/white-eb/84883/#respond Tue, 07 Jul 2026 22:27:02 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=84883 A writer should cultivate only what naturally absorbs his fancy, whether it be freedom or cinch bugs, and should write in the way that comes easy.

E. B. White (1899–1985) American author, critic, humorist [Elwyn Brooks White]
Essay (1939-01), “One Man’s Meat,” Harper’s Magazine, Vol. 178
    (Source)

When collected in his book, One Man's Meat (1944), the essay was renamed "Salt Water Farm." Sometimes the excerpted third section of the essay is referred to as "The Duty of Writers." ]]> https://wist.info/white-eb/84883/feed/ 0 84883 https://wist.info/white-eb/85184/ https://wist.info/white-eb/85184/#respond Tue, 28 Jul 2026 23:33:51 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=85184 I know of one gifted crackpot who used to be employed gainfully in the fields of humor and satire, who has taken a solemn pledge not to write anything funny or lighthearted or “insignificant” again till things get straightened around in the world. This seems to me distinctly deleterious and a little silly. A literature composed of nothing but liberty-loving thoughts is little better than the propaganda which it seeks to defeat.

E. B. White (1899–1985) American author, critic, humorist [Elwyn Brooks White]
Essay (1939-01), “One Man’s Meat,” Harper’s Magazine, Vol. 178
    (Source)

When collected in his book, One Man's Meat (1944), the essay was renamed "Salt Water Farm." Sometimes the excerpted third section of the essay is referred to as "The Duty of Writers." ]]> https://wist.info/white-eb/85184/feed/ 0 85184 https://wist.info/white-eb/9828/ https://wist.info/white-eb/9828/#respond Thu, 18 Feb 2010 16:38:15 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=9828 Anyone who writes down to children is simply wasting his time. You have to write up, not down.

E. B. White (1899–1985) American author, critic, humorist [Elwyn Brooks White]
Interview by G. Plimpton, F. Crowther, The Paris Review (1969)

Full text.

]]> https://wist.info/white-eb/9828/feed/ 0 9828 https://wist.info/white-eb/22703/ https://wist.info/white-eb/22703/#respond Fri, 18 Oct 2013 17:04:24 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=22703 A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word on paper.

E. B. White (1899–1985) American author, critic, humorist [Elwyn Brooks White]
Interview by George Plimpton and Frank H. Crowther, “E. B. White, The Art of the Essay No. 1,” Paris Review #48 (Fall 1969)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/white-eb/22703/feed/ 0 22703 https://wist.info/white-eb/62965/ https://wist.info/white-eb/62965/#respond Wed, 06 Sep 2023 14:27:19 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=62965 I am beginning to feel a little more like an author now that I have had a book banned. The literary life, in this country, begins in jail.

E. B. White (1899–1985) American author, critic, humorist [Elwyn Brooks White]
Letter to Stanley Hart White (1944-06)
    (Source)

On reading that the US Army and Navy had refused to publish an "Armed Services Edition" of his Harper's magazine essay collection, One Man's Meat (1942), for "political implications." The decision was later rescinded. ]]> https://wist.info/white-eb/62965/feed/ 0 62965 https://wist.info/white-eb/18029/ https://wist.info/white-eb/18029/#respond Thu, 24 May 2012 13:54:07 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=18029 The press in our free country is reliable and useful not because of its good character but because of its great diversity. As long as there are many owners, each pursuing his own brand of truth, we the people have an opportunity to arrive at the truth and to dwell in the light. The multiplicity of ownership is crucial. It’s only when there are a few owners, or, as in a government-controlled press, one owner, that truth becomes illusive and the light fails.

E. B. White (1899–1985) American author, critic, humorist [Elwyn Brooks White]
Letter to W. B. Jones (30 Jan 1976) ]]> https://wist.info/white-eb/18029/feed/ 0 18029 https://wist.info/white-eb/5153/ https://wist.info/white-eb/5153/#respond Thu, 26 Jul 2007 15:23:36 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=5153 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 (1899–1985) American author, critic, humorist [Elwyn Brooks White]
Recalled on his death, Newsweek (14 Oct 1985) ]]> https://wist.info/white-eb/5153/feed/ 0 5153