Mathilde > Mathilde's Quotes

“It may help to understand human affairs to be clear that most of the great triumphs and tragedies of history are caused, not by people being fundamentally good or fundamentally bad, but by people being fundamentally people.”
― Neil Gaiman, Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch

“Whether or not you find your own way, you're bound to find some way. If you happen to find my way, please return it, as it was lost years ago. I imagine by now it's quite rusty.”
― Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth

“what you can do is often a matter of what you will do.”
― Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth

“For you often learn more by being wrong for the right reasons than you do by being right for the wrong reasons.”
― Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth

“So Matilda’s strong young mind continued to grow, nurtured by the voices of all those authors who had sent their books out into the world like ships on the sea. These books gave Matilda a hopeful and comforting message: You are not alone.”
― Roald Dahl, Matilda

“So many things are possible just as long as you don't know they're impossible.”
― Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth

“Expect everything, I always say, and the unexpected never happens.”
― Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth

“Have you ever heard the wonderful silence just before the dawn? Or the quiet and calm just as a storm ends? Or perhaps you know the silence when you haven't the answer to a question you've been asked, or the hush of a country road at night, or the expectant pause of a room full of people when someone is just about to speak, or, most beautiful of all, the moment after the door closes and you're alone in the whole house? Each one is different, you know, and all very beautiful if you listen carefully.”
― Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth

“Time is a gift, given to you, given to give you the time you need, the time you need to have the time of your life. ”
― Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth

“The only thing you can do easily is be wrong, and that's hardly worth the effort.”
― Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth

“if something is there, you can only see it with your eyes open, but if it isn't there, you can see it just as well with your eyes closed. That's why imaginary things are often easier to see than real ones.”
― Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth

“One day, you will be old enough to start reading fairytales again.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia

“...today people use as many words as they can and think themselves very wise for doing so. For always remember that while it is wrong to use too few, it is often far worse to use too many.”
― Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth

“as long as the answer is right, who cares if the question is wrong? If you want sense, you’ll have to make it yourself.”
― Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth

“but it’s not just learning things that’s important. It’s learning what to do with what you learn and learning why you learn things at all that matters.”
― Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth: The classic adventure book full of unexpected thrills

“And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.”
― Roald Dahl

“We have so much time and so little to do. Strike that, reverse it.”
― Roald Dahl

“Having power is not nearly as important as what you choose to do with it.”
― Roald Dahl

“There are no strangers in here, just friends you haven't met...”
― Roald Dahl

“Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.”
― C.S. Lewis

“There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.”
― C.S. Lewis

“Crying is all right in its way while it lasts. But you have to stop sooner or later, and then you still have to decide what to do.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Silver Chair

“What draws people to be friends is that they see the same truth. They share it.”
― C. S. Lewis

“The truest tales require time and familiarity to become what they are.”
― Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus

“And there are never really endings, happy or otherwise. Things keep going on, they overlap and blur, your story is part of your sister's story is part of many other stories, and there is no telling where any of them may lead.”
― Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus

“People are naive about such things, and they would rather write them off as evil than attempt to understand them. An unfortunate truth, but a truth nonetheless.”
― Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus

“Life isn't fair, it's just fairer than death, that's all.”
― William Goldman, The Princess Bride

“Things which are equally bad are also equally good. Try to look at the bright side of things.”
― Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth

“But just because you can never reach it, doesn’t mean that it’s not worth looking for.”
― Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth

“Just because you have a choice, it doesn't mean that any of them 'has' to be right.”
― Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth