"'Oh, why does compassion weaken us?'

'It doesn't, really...Somewhere where it all balances out-don't the philosophers have a name for it, the perfect place, the place where the answers live?-if we could go there, you could see it doesn't.It only looks, a little bit, like it does, from here, like an ant at the foot of an oak tree. He doesn't have a clue that it's a tree; it's the beginning of the wall round the world, to him.'"
— Robin McKinley (Spindle's End)

"Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened."
— Dr. Seuss

"A room without books is like a body without a soul."
— Marcus Tullius Cicero

"Silence make the real conversations between friends. Not the saying, but the never needing to say that counts."
— Margaret Lee Runbeck

"Your friends will know you better in the first minute you meet than your acquaintances will know you in a thousand years."
— Richard Bach

"I'm glad to be with you, Samwise Gamgee, here at the end of all things."
— J.R.R. Tolkien

"When you get tired of worrying and mourning your horse and trying not to be afraid, tell me and I'll do it for you a while so you can shut your eyes and sleep peaceful."
— Shannon Hale (The Goose Girl)

"The Prophet Joseph Smith taught that “friendship is one of the grand fundamental principles of ‘Mormonism.’ ” That thought ought to inspire and motivate all of us because I feel that friendship is a fundamental need of our world. I think in all of us there is a profound longing for friendship, a deep yearning for the satisfaction and security that close and lasting relationships can give. Perhaps one reason the scriptures make little specific mention of the principle of friendship is because it should be manifest quite naturally as we live the gospel. In fact, if the consummate Christian attribute of charity has a first cousin, it is friendship."
— Marlin K. Jensen

"Books are keys to wisdom's treasure;
Books are gates to lands of pleasure;
Books are paths that upward lead;
Books are friends. Come, let us read."
— Emilie Poulsson

"Roses are for love. Not silly sweet-hearts' love but the love that makes you and keeps you whole, love that gets you through the worst your life'll give you and that pours out of you when you're given the best instead."
— Robin McKinley (Rose Daughter)

"But the world turns, and even legends change; and somewhere there is a border,and sometime, perhaps, someone will decide to cross it, however well guarded its thorns may be."
— Robin McKinley (The Door in the Hedge)

"My mama used to say, 'Are you sad? Then just wait a minute.'"
— Shannon Hale (Book of a Thousand Days)

"... If we don't tell strange stories, when something strange happens we won't believe it."
— Shannon Hale (The Goose Girl)

"We know it's all just daydreaming. In all likelihood, no one in this forest'll ever get a javelin, and I'll never see my mother's kingdom again, let alone be hailed by crowds as the jewel of Kildenree. Maybe it's vain to wish for it. But sometimes, it'd be nice just to hold something real in your hands that felt like a measure of your worth. Right Finn?"
— Shannon Hale (The Goose Girl)

"There you go...let it all slide out. Unhappiness can't stick in a person's soul when it's slick with tears [p. 173]."
— Shannon Hale (Princess Academy)

"Wait, I want more green. I hope I did not imply I only wanted your colors. We can't turn a cold shoulder to green, and blue, and purple, for the sake of all ordered things, how can you dismiss purple? Celi, call Nom back and tell him of my need for purple!"
— Shannon Hale (River Secrets)

"They weren't nice words he said. He could've lived a good life and died never having made a person feel rubbed down to bones and too sad to hold together. "
— Shannon Hale (Book of a Thousand Days)

"Right now I'd like all my troubles to stand in front of me in a straight line, and one by one I'd give each a black eye. "
— Shannon Hale (The Goose Girl)

"Mama used to say, you have to know someone a thousand days before you can glimpse her soul."
— Shannon Hale (Book of a Thousand Days)

"I keep thinking about a tale my nurse used to read to me about a bird whose wings are pinned to the ground. In the end, when he finally frees himself, he flies so high he becomes a star. My nurse said the story was about how we all have something that keeps us down."
— Shannon Hale (Princess Academy)

"Remember, if the time should come when you have to make a choice between what is right and what is easy, remember what happened to a boy who was good, and kind, and brave, because he strayed across the path of Lord Voldemort. Remember Cedric Diggory."
— J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire)

"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on."
— Robert Frost

"Every step begins a journey, and this one is for us."
— Cinderpelt/Erin Hunter

"It is a much more straightforward thing to be a dog, and a dog's love, once given, is not reconsidered."
— Robin McKinley (Deerskin)

"Laughter went on and on, like sunlight and stone, even if the human beings who laughed did not."
— Robin McKinley (Chalice)

"If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals."
— J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire)

"Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light."
— J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban)

"Just because you have the emotional range of a teaspoon doesn't mean we all have."
— J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix)

"Mr. Moony presents his compliments to Professor Snape, and begs him to keep his abnormally large nose out of other people's business.

Mr. Prongs agrees with Mr. Moony, and would like to add that Professor Snape is an ugly git.

Mr. Padfoot would like to register his astonishment that an idiot like that ever became a professor.

Mr. Wormtail bids Professor Snape good day, and advises him to wash his hair, the slimeball."
— J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban)

"It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all - in which case, you fail by default."
— J.K. Rowling

"It was, he thought, the difference between being dragged into the arena to face a battle to the death and walking into the arena with your head held high. Some people, perhaps, would say that there was little to choose between the two ways, but Dumbledore knew - and so do I, thought Harry, with a rush of fierce pride, and so did my parents - that there was all the difference in the world."
— J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince)

"It is the unknown we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more."
— J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince)

"Harry was left to ponder in silence the depths to which girls would sink to get revenge."
— J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince)

"The thing about growing up with Fred and George," said Ginny thoughtfully, "is that you sort of start thinking anything's possible if you've got enough nerve."
— J. K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince)

"Just then Neville caused a slight diversion by turning into a large canary."
— J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire)

"There's always room for a story that can transport people to another place."
— J.K. Rowling

"You know, Minister, I disagree with Dumbledore on many counts...but you cannot deny he's got style..."
— J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix)

"'From now on, I don't care if my tea leaves spell 'Die, Ron, Die,' I'm chucking them in the bin where they belong.'"
— J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban)

"Ron's indignation on his behalf was worth about a hundred points to him."
— J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire)

"I mean, you could claim that anything's real if the only basis for believing in it is that nobody's proved it doesn't exist!"
— J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows)

"As our listeners will know, unless they've taken refuge at the bottom of a garden pond or somewhere similar, You-Know-Who's strategy of remaining in the shadows is creating a nice little climate of panic."
— J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows)

"Ron," said Hermione in a dignified voice, "you are the most insensitive wart I have ever had the misfortune to meet."
— J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix)

"What would come, would come...and you would have to meet it,when it did."
— J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire)

"To hurt is as human as to breathe."
— J.K. Rowling (The Tales of Beedle the Bard)

"Age is foolish and forgetful when it underestimates youth."
— J.K. Rowling

"It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.

What are we holding onto, Sam?

That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo... and it's worth fighting for

(From The Lord of the Rings screenplay by Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens; incorrectly attributed to JRR Tolkien)"
— J.R.R. Tolkien

"I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend. (Faramir son of Denethor)"
— J.R.R. Tolkien

"I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race - that rarely do I ever simply estimate it."
— Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)

"Imagine smiling after a slap in the face. Then think of doing it twenty-four hours a day. "
— Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind."
— Dr. Seuss