E.B. White
"After all, what's a life, anyway? We're born, we live a little while, we die."
39 Quotes
"After all, what's a life, anyway? We're born, we live a little while, we die."
"ما الحياة في نهاية المطاف؟ نولد، نحيا برهة، ثم نموت."
E.B. White
Charlotte’s Web
"Writing is an act of faith, not a trick of grammar."
"الكتابة فعل إيمان، لا حيلة نحوية."
E.B. White
"I am pessimistic about the human race because it is too ingenious for its own good. Our approach to nature is to beat it into submission. We would stand a better chance of survival if we accommodated ourselves to this planet and viewed it appreciatively, instead of skeptically and dictatorially."
"أنا متشائم بشأن الجنس البشري لأنه أفرط في براعته حتى أضرّ بنفسه. إن نهجنا تجاه الطبيعة هو إخضاعها بالقوة. لكانت فرصتنا في البقاء أفضل لو تكيّفنا مع هذا الكوكب ونظرنا إليه بتقدير، بدلًا من الشك والتسلط."
E.B. White
"The mind travels faster than the pen; consequently, writing becomes a question of learning to make occasional wing shots, bringing down the bird of thought as it flashes by. A writer is a gunner, sometimes waiting in the blind for something to come in, sometimes roaming the countryside hoping to scare something up."
"الفكر يسبق القلم في رحلته؛ ولهذا، تصبح الكتابة مسألة تعلم كيف تسدد رميات خاطفة من حين لآخر، لتصطاد طائر الفكرة وهو يمر كلمح البصر. الكاتب قناص، تارة ينتظر في مخبئه قدوم شيء، وتارة يجوب الريف آملاً في إثارة ما يختبئ."
E.B. White
The Elements of Style
"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.[Letters of Note; Troy (MI, USA) Public Library, 1971]"
"المكتبة ملاذٌ حسنٌ حين يغشاك الحزن، ففي كتابٍ هناك قد تجد العزاء والسلوان. والمكتبة مقصدٌ طيبٌ حين يلفّك الحيرة أو التردد، ففي كتابٍ هناك قد يأتيك الجواب الشافي. الكتب خير رفيقٍ في السراء والضراء، فالكتب أناسٌ – أناسٌ استطاعوا البقاء أحياءً باختبائهم بين دفتي كتاب."
E.B. White
"Explaining a joke is like dissecting a frog. You understand it better but the frog dies in the process."
"شرح النكتة كتشريح الضفدع؛ تفهمها أفضل، لكن الضفدع يموت في العملية."
E.B. White
"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."
"يرحل الناقد مع إسدال الستار،
فإذا به، وقد شرع في تقييمها،
يُدرك أنه ما شهد العرض حقاً،
لأنه كان يتهيأ لنقده."
E.B. White
"I'm really too young to go out into the world alone," he thought as he lay down."
E.B. White
"New York is the concentrate of art and commerce and sport and religion and entertainment and finance, bringing to a single compact arena the gladiator, the evangelist, the promoter, the actor, the trader and the merchant. No one should come to New York to live unless he is willing to be lucky."
E.B. White
"New York is to the nation what the white church spire is to the village - the visible symbol of aspiration and faith, the white plume saying the way is up"
E.B. White
"The city is like poetry; it compresses all life, all races and breeds, into a small island and adds music and the accompaniment of internal engines."
E.B. White
"new york provides not only a continuing excitation but also a spectacle that is continuing."
E.B. White
"Early summer days are a jubilee time for birds. In the fields, around the house, in the barn, in the woods, in the swamp - everywhere love and songs and nests and eggs."
E.B. White
"All that I hope to say in books, all that I ever hope to say, is that I love the world."
E.B. White
"Walden is the report of a man torn by two powerful and opposing drives – the desire to enjoy the world and the urge to set the world straight."
E.B. White
"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
"The sea answers all questions, and always in the same way; for when you read in the papers the interminable discussions and the bickering and the prognostications and the turmoil, the disagreements and the fateful decisions and agreements and the plans and the programs and the threats and the counter threats, then you close your eyes and the sea dispatches one more big roller in the unbroken line since the beginning of the world and it combs and breaks and returns foaming and saying: "So soon" E. B. White "On A Florida Key"
E.B. White
"To confront death, in any guise, is to identify with the victim and face what is unsettling and sobering"
E.B. White
"It is quite obvious that the human race has made a queer mess of life on this planet. But as a people we probably harbor seeds of goodness that have lain for a long time waiting to sprout when conditions are right. Man's curiosity, his relentlessness, his inventiveness, his ingenuity have led him into deep trouble. We can only hope that these same traits will enable him to claw his way out."
E.B. White
"Hope is the thing that is left to us, in a bad time."
E.B. White
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