Quotes from Norton Juster

Why, did you know that there are almost as many kinds of stillness as there are sounds? But, sadly enough, no one pays any attention to them these days.

And it's much the same thing with knowledge, for whenever you learn something new, the whole world becomes that much richer.

How are you going to make it move? It doesn't have a – Be very quiet, advised the duke, for it goes without saying. And, sure enough, as soon as they were all quite still, it began to move quickly through the streets, and in a very short time they arrived at the royal palace.

People laughed less and grumbled more, sang less and shouted more, and the sounds they made grew louder and uglier. It became difficult to hear even the birds or the breeze, and soon everyone stopped listening for them.

changes are so frightening.

You see, it's really quite simple. A simile is just a mode of comparison employing 'as' and 'like' to reveal the hidden character or essence of whatever we want to describe, and through the use of fancy, association, contrast, extension, or imagination, to enlarge our understanding or perception of human experience and observation.

You'll find," he remarked gently, "that the only thing you can do easily is be wrong, and that's hardly worth the effort.

Besides, being lost is never a matter of not knowing where you are; it's a matter of not knowing where you aren't—and I don't care at all about where I'm not.

And that's why people no longer care which words they use as long as they use lots of them.

what you can do is often a matter of what you will do.

He punctuated this last thought with such a deep sigh that a house sparrow singing near by stopped and rushed home to be with his family.

Yes, indeed, they repeated together; but if we'd told you then, you might not have gone--and as you've discovered, so many things are possible just as long as you don't know they're impossible.

Can you spell everything? asked Milo admiringly. Just about, replied the bee with a hint of pride in his voice. You see, years ago I was just an ordinary bee minding my own business, smelling flowers all day, and occasionally picking up part-time work in people's bonnets. Then one day I realized that I'd never amount to anything without an education and, being naturally adept at spelling, I decided that—

Things which are equally bad are also equally good. Try to look at the bright side of things.

every time you decide something without having a good reason, you jump to Conclusions whether you like it or not.

If you only do the easy and useless jobs, you'll never have to worry about the important ones which are so difficult. You just won't have the time. For there's always something to do to keep you from what you really should be doing, and if it weren't for that dreadful magic staff, you'd never know how much time you were wasting.

There are other advantages, continued the child. For instance, if one rat were cornered by nine cats, on the average, each cat would be ten percent rat and the rat would be ninety percent cat. If you happened to be a rat, you can see how much nicer it would make things.

Of course, if you've ever gotten a surprise package, you can imagine how puzzled and excited Milo was; and if you've never gotten one, pay close attention, because someday you might.

You'll find that the only thing you can do easily is be wrong, and that's hardly worth the effort.

Don't try to leave for there's so very much to do, and you still have over eight hundred years to go on the first job.' 'But why do only unimportant things?' 'Think of all the trouble it saves. If you only do the easy and useless jobs, you'll never have to worry about the important ones which are so difficult. You just won't have the time. For there's always something to do to keep you from what you really should be doing.

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.

And it's much the same thing with knowledge, for whenever you learn something new, the whole world becomes that much richer.

many things are possible just as long as you don't know they're impossible.

mirages are things that aren't really there that you can see very clearly. How do you see something that isn't there?... sometimes it's much simpler than seeing things that are...