E. B. White: Thing

“Government is the thing. Law is the thing.”

E. B. White

As quoted in Common Cause: A Monthly Report of the Committee to Frame a World Constitution Vol. I, No. 2 (August 1947)
Context: 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.

Law

“When you consider that there are a thousand ways to express even the simplest idea, it is no wonder writers are under a great strain. Writers care greatly how a thing is said — it makes all the difference.”

E. B. White

Paris Review interview (1969)
Context: When you consider that there are a thousand ways to express even the simplest idea, it is no wonder writers are under a great strain. Writers care greatly how a thing is said — it makes all the difference. So they are constantly faced with too many choices and must make too many decisions.
I am still encouraged to go on. I wouldn't know where else to go.

Way , Idea

“A man who publishes his letters becomes a nudist — nothing shields him from the world's gaze except his bare skin. A writer, writing away, can always fix things up to make himself more presentable, but a man who has written a letter is stuck with it for all time.”

E. B. White

Letter to Corona Machemer (11 June 1975)

World , Time

“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.”

E. B. White

"Some Remarks on Humor," preface to A Subtreasury of American Humor (1941)
A very similar remark is often attributed to White, but may actually be a paraphrased version of the above statement: "Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested and the frog dies of it."

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

E. B. White

"A Report in January" (30 January 1958), The Points of My Compass: Letters from the East, the West, the North, the South (1962); reprinted in Essays of E.B. White (1977)

Time

“Sailors have an expression about the weather: they say the 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

Letter to M. Nadeau (30 March 1973)

Change , Weather

“Did it ever occur to you that there's no limit to how complicated things can get, on account of one thing always leading to another?”

E. B. White

"Quo Vadimus?" http://books.google.com/books?id=vvEvAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Did+it+ever+occur+to+you+that+there's+no+limit+to+how+complicated+things+can+get+on+account+of+one+thing+always+leading+to+another%22&pg=PA34#v=onepage, The Adelphi (January 1930)

“As long as there is one upright man, as long as there is one compassionate woman, the contagion may spread and the scene is not desolate. Hope is the one thing left to us in a bad time.”

E. B. White

Letter to M. Nadeau (30 March 1973)

Hope , Time