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  • #1
    Andrew  Lang
    “...remember that the danger that is most to be feared is never the danger we are most afraid of.”
    Andrew Lang, The Red Fairy Book

  • #2
    Andrew  Lang
    “Young men, especially in America, write to me and ask me to recommend “a course of reading.” Distrust a course of reading! People who really care for books read all of them. There is no other course.”
    Andrew Lang, Adventures Among Books

  • #3
    Andrew  Lang
    “Why should I laugh?' asked the old man. 'Madness in youth is true wisdom. Go, young man, follow your dream, and if you do not find the happiness that you seek, at any rate you will have had the happiness of seeking it.”
    Andrew Lang, The Red Fairy Book

  • #4
    Andrew  Lang
    “In the old stories, despite the impossibility of the incidents, the interest is always real and human.  The princes and princesses fall in love and marry--nothing could be more human than that.  Their lives and loves are crossed by human sorrows...The hero and heroine are persecuted or separated by cruel stepmothers or enchanters; they have wanderings and sorrows to suffer; they have adventures to achieve and difficulties to overcome; they must display courage, loyalty and address, courtesy, gentleness and gratitude.  Thus they are living in a real human world, though it wears a mythical face, though there are giants and lions in the way.  The old fairy tales which a silly sort of people disparage as too wicked and ferocious for the nursery, are really 'full of matter,' and unobtrusively teach the true lessons of our wayfaring in a world of perplexities and obstructions.”
    Andrew Lang

  • #5
    Terry Pratchett
    “All right," said Susan. "I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need... fantasies to make life bearable."

    REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.

    "Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—"

    YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.

    "So we can believe the big ones?"

    YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.

    "They're not the same at all!"

    YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET—Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME...SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.

    "Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point—"

    MY POINT EXACTLY.”
    Terry Pratchett, Hogfather

  • #6
    Terry Pratchett
    “HUMAN BEINGS MAKE LIFE SO INTERESTING. DO YOU KNOW, THAT IN A UNIVERSE SO FULL OF WONDERS, THEY HAVE MANAGED TO INVENT BOREDOM. (Death)”
    Terry Pratchett, Hogfather

  • #7
    Terry Pratchett
    “You can't give her that!' she screamed. 'It's not safe!'
    IT'S A SWORD, said the Hogfather. THEY'RE NOT MEANT TO BE SAFE.
    'She's a child!' shouted Crumley.
    IT'S EDUCATIONAL.
    'What if she cuts herself?'
    THAT WILL BE AN IMPORTANT LESSON.”
    Terry Pratchett, Hogfather

  • #8
    Terry Pratchett
    “WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF YOU HADN'T SAVED HIM?
    "Yes! The sun would have risen just the same, yes?"
    NO
    "Oh, come on. You can't expect me to believe that. It's an astronomical fact."
    THE SUN WOULD NOT HAVE RISEN.
    ...
    "Really? Then what would have happened, pray?"
    A MERE BALL OF FLAMING GAS WOULD HAVE ILLUMINATED THE WORLD.”
    Terry Pratchett, Hogfather

  • #9
    Terry Pratchett
    “IT'S THE EXPRESSION ON THEIR LITTLE FACES I LIKE, said the Hogfather.
    "You mean sort of fear and awe and not knowing whether to laugh or cry or wet their pants?"
    YES. NOW THAT IS WHAT I CALL BELIEF.”
    Terry Pratchett, Hogfather

  • #10
    Lloyd Alexander
    “I ask no comfort," Taran replied, "but the truth, be it harsh or happy."
    "Ah, my sweet robin," said Orddu, "for the finding of that, nothing is harder. There are those who have spent lifetimes at it, and many in worse plight than yours.”
    Lloyd Alexander, Taran Wanderer
    tags: truth

  • #11
    Terry Pratchett
    “There is a rumour going around that I have found God. I think this is unlikely because I have enough difficulty finding my keys, and there is empirical evidence that they exist.”
    Terry Pratchett

  • #12
    Lloyd Alexander
    “I saw myself.... In the time I watched, I saw strength—and frailty. Pride and vanity, courage and fear. Of wisdom, a little. Of folly, much. Of intentions, many good ones; but many more left undone. In this, alas, I saw myself a man like any other.

    But this, too, I saw.... Alike as men may seem, each is different as flakes of snow, no two the same. You told me you had no need to seek the Mirror, knowing you were Annlaw Clay-Shaper. Now I know who I am: myself and none other. I am Taran.”
    Lloyd Alexander, Taran Wanderer

  • #13
    Lloyd Alexander
    “I believe you know my quest from its beginning to its end, and that I seed to learn my parentage.

    "Parentage?" said Orddu. "Nothing easier. Choose any parents you please. Since none of you has ever known each other, what difference can it possibly make - to them or to you? Believe what you like. You'll be surprised how comforting it is.”
    Lloyd Alexander, Taran Wanderer

  • #14
    Terry Pratchett
    “NAUGHTY AND NICE? said Death. BUT IT'S EASY TO BE NICE IF YOU'RE RICH. IS THIS FAIR?
    Albert wanted to argue. He wanted to say, Really? In that case, how come so many of the rich buggers is bastards? And being poor don't mean being naughty, neither.”
    Terry Pratchett, Hogfather

  • #15
    Terry Pratchett
    “I HAVE MADE THIS FOR YOU.
    She reached out and took a damp square of cardboard. Water dripped off the bottom. Somewhere in the middle, a few brown feathers seemed to have been glued on.
    'Thank you. Er ... what is it?'
    ALBERT SAID THERE OUGHT TO BE SNOW ON IT, BUT IT APPEARS TO HAVE MELTED, said Death. IT IS, OF COURSE, A HOGSWATCH CARD.
    'Oh ...'
    THERE SHOULD HAVE BEEN A ROBIN ON IT AS WELL, BUT I HAD CONSIDERABLE DIFFICULTY IN GETTING IT TO STAY ON.
    'Ah...'
    IT WAS NOT AT ALL COOPERATIVE.
    'Really ...?'
    IT DID NOT SEEM TO GET INTO THE HOGSWATCH SPIRIT AT ALL.”
    Terry Pratchett, Hogfather

  • #16
    Terry Pratchett
    “I'm your worst nightmare!' said Teatime cheerfully.
    The man shuddered.
    'You mean ... the one with the giant cabbage and the sort of whirring knife thing?'
    'Sorry?' Teatime looked momentarily nonplussed.
    'Then you're the one where I'm falling, only instead of the ground underneath it's all --'
    'No. In fact I'm --'
    The guard sagged. 'Awww, not the one where there's all this kind of, you know, mud and then everything goes blue --'
    'No, I'm --'
    'Oh, shit, then you're the one where there's this door only there's no floor beyond it and then there's these claws --'
    'No,' said Teatime. 'Not that one.' He withdrew a dagger from his sleeve. 'I'm the one where this man comes out of nowhere and kills you, stone dead.”
    Terry Pratchett, Hogfather

  • #17
    Gerald Morris
    “He expects us to kill him," Palomides said to Dinadan.
    "Some people are so demanding," Dinadan replied. "Considering we've only just met, I mean.”
    Gerald Morris, The Ballad of Sir Dinadan

  • #18
    Gerald Morris
    “Whatever you seize for yourself is worthless. Only what is given you has value.”
    Gerald Morris

  • #19
    Gerald Morris
    “Once she exclaimed, "But I always thought that sorceresses were evil!"
    "What do you mean 'evil'?"
    Lynet has never considered the question. "You know," she said, after a moment, "unfriendly to people."
    "People!" repeated Morgana derisively. "As if humans were all that mattered. Just once I'd like to see people judged by how friendly they are to sorceresses.”
    Gerald Morris, The Savage Damsel and the Dwarf

  • #20
    Gerald Morris
    “If you want to know a king, see how he treats his defeated foes. All are gracious to their equals; one in a thousand is gracious to an enemy he has conquered.”
    Gerald Morris, The Squire's Tale

  • #21
    Gerald Morris
    “Adventure is something that happens to someone else. When it's happening to you, it's only trouble.”
    Gerald Morris, The Ballad of Sir Dinadan

  • #22
    Gerald Morris
    “Answer me this: is it worse to end a stupid task falsely or to continue a stupid task honestly?”
    Gerald Morris, The Ballad of Sir Dinadan

  • #23
    Lloyd Alexander
    “Fantasy is hardly an escape from reality. It's a way of understanding it.”
    Lloyd Alexander

  • #24
    Lloyd Alexander
    “We don't need to have just one favorite. We keep adding favorites. Our favorite book is always the book that speaks most directly to us at a particular stage in our lives. And our lives change. We have other favorites that give us what we most need at that particular time. But we never lose the old favorites. They're always with us. We just sort of accumulate them.”
    Lloyd Alexander

  • #25
    Lloyd Alexander
    “In some cases we learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself.”
    Lloyd Alexander, The Book of Three

  • #26
    Lloyd Alexander
    “Long ago I yearned to be a hero without knowing, in truth, what a hero was. Now, perhaps, I understand it a little better. A grower of turnips or a shaper of clay, a Commot farmer or a king--every man is a hero if he strives more for others than for himself alone.
    Once you told me that the seeking counts more than the finding. So, too, must the striving count more than the gain.”
    Lloyd Alexander, The High King

  • #27
    Lloyd Alexander
    “Thinking is a bit uncomfortable, but you'll get used to it. A matter of time and practice.”
    Lloyd Alexander, The Iron Ring

  • #28
    Lloyd Alexander
    “Dealing with the impossible, fantasy can show us what may be really possible. If there is grief, there is the possibility of consolation; if hurt, the possibility of healing; and above all, the curative power of hope. If fantasy speaks to us as we are, it also speaks to us as we might be.”
    Lloyd Alexander

  • #29
    Lloyd Alexander
    “For the deeds of a man, not the words of a prophecy, are what shape his destiny.”
    Lloyd Alexander, The High King

  • #30
    Lloyd Alexander
    “Perhaps,' Taran said quietly, watching the moon-white riverbank slip past them, 'perhaps you have the truth of it. At first I felt as you did. Then I remember thinking of Eilonwy, only of her; and the bauble showed its light. Prince Rhun was ready to lay down his life; his thoughts were for our safety, not at all for his own. And because he offered the greatest sacrifice, the bauble glowed brightest for him. Can that be its secret? To think more for others than ourselves?'

    That would seem to be one of its secrets, at least,' replied Fflewddur. 'Once you've discovered that, you've discovered a great secret indeed--with or without the bauble.”
    Lloyd Alexander, The Castle of Llyr



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