The Last Unicorn Quotes

“No sorrow will live in me as long as that joy--save one, and I thank you for that, too.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“But the important thing is for you to understand that it doesn't matter whether the clock strikes ten next, or fifteen o'clock. You can strike your own time, and start the count anywhere. When you can understand that -- then any time at all will be the right time for you.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“The unicorn was weary of human beings. Watching her companions as they slept, seeing the shadows of their dreams scurry over their faces, she would feel herself bending under the heaviness of knowing their names. Then she would run until morning to ease the ache: swifter than rain, swift as loss, racing to catch up with the time when she had known nothing at all but the sweetness of being herself.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“Speaking of livers,' the unicorn said. 'Real magic can never be made by offering up someone else's liver. You must tear out your own, and not expect to get it back. The true witches know that.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“I was born mortal, and I have been immortal for a long, foolish time, and one day I will be mortal again; so I know something that a unicorn cannot know. Whatever can die is beautiful--more beautiful than a unicorn, who lives forever, and who is the most beautiful creature in the world.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“You may plant your acres again and raise up your fallen orchard and vineyards, but they will never flourish as they used to, never--until you learn to take joy in them, for no reason.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“[The unicorn] sighed and plodded on, both amused and disappointed. It serves you right, she told herself. You know better than to expect a butterfly to know your name. All they know are songs and poetry, and anything else they hear. They mean well, but they can’t keep things straight. And why should they, they die so soon.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“The unicorn was so startled and so happy to hear her name spoken at last that she overlooked the remark about the horse. "Oh, you know me!" she cried, and the breath of her delight blew the butterfly twenty feet away.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“Schmendrick smiled then. "I'm no man," he said. "I'm a magician with no magic, and that's no one at all.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“He was the color of blood, not the springing blood of the heart but the blood that stirs under an old wound that never really healed. A terrible light poured from him like sweat, and his roar started landslides flowing into one another. His horns were pale as scares.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“Where you are going now,' Schmendrick answered, 'few will mean you anything but evil, and a friendly heart— however foolish — may be as welcome as water one day. Take me with you, for laughs, for luck, for the unknown. Take me with you.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“And at last she woke up in the middle of one warm night and said, "Yes, but now.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“There's more meaning than magic to this”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“Their faces were as beautiful as though they had never known fear.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“Christ, that my love were in my arms, and I in my bed again.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“This body is dying. I can feel it rotting all around me.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“The unicorn waited, feeling the days of her life falling around her with the rain.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“But another sound followed them long after these had faded, followed them into morning on a strange road— the tiny, dry sound of a spider weeping.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“You have all the power you need, if you dare to look for it.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“But no hero can stand before her, no god can wrestle her down, no magic can keep her out--or in, for she's no prisoner of ours. Even while we exhibit her here, she is walking among you, touching and taking. For Elli is Old Age.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“You are the king of a wasted land where there has never been any king but fear. Your true task has just begun, and you may not know in your life if you have succeeded in it, but only if you fail.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“It is said that love makes men swift and women slow.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“But the skull was laughing again; this time making a thoughtful, almost kindly noise. "Remember what I told you about time," it said. "When I was alive, I believed -- as you do -- that time was at least as real and solid as myself, and probably more so. I said 'one o'clock' as though I could find it on the map; and I let myself be hurried along from minute to minute, day to day, year to year, as though I were actually moving from one place to another. Like everyone else, I lived in a house bricked up with seconds and minutes, weekends and New Year's Days, and I never went outside until I died, because there was no other door. Now I know that I could have walked through the walls.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“What could we have done to save the unicorns? We were afraid of the Red Bull. What could we have done?'
'One word might have been enough,' King Lír replied. 'You'll never know now.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“The happy ending cannot come in the middle of the story.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“(...)Have a taco.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“She rode beside Schmendrick, watching the gentle advent of the Spring and thinking of how it had come to her, late but lasting.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“Heroes know that things must happen when it is time for it to happen. A quest may not simply be abandoned; unicorns may go unrescued for a long time, but not forever; a happy ending cannot come in the middle of the story.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn