I have occasionally had the exquisite thrill of putting my finger on a — E. B. White

"Everything (he kept saying) is something it isnt. And everybody is always somewhere else."

"Necessity first mothered invention. Now invention has little ones of her own, and they look just like grandma."

"Government is the thing. Law is the thing. Not brotherhood, not international cooperation, not security councils that can stop war only by waging it... Where does security lie, anyway — security against the thief, a bad man, the murderer? In brotherly love? Not at all. It lies in government."

"Americans are willing to go to enormous trouble and expense defending their principles with arms, very little trouble and expense advocating them with words. Temperamentally we are ready to die for certain principles (or, in the case of overripe adults, send youngsters to die), but we show little inclination to advertise the reasons for dying."

"It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer. Charlotte was both."

"There is a decivilizing bug somewhere at work; unconsciously persons of stern worth, by not resenting and resisting the small indignities of the times, are preparing themselves for the eventual acceptance of what they themselves know they don’t want."