Quotes from Hugh Lofting

I make no claim to be an authority on writing or illustrating for children.

You stupid piece of warm bacon.

There has always been a tendency to classify children almost as a distinct species.

The fact that I have been successful merely means that I can write and illustrate in my own way.

What is war?' I asked. Oh, it's a messy, stupid business,' he said, 'Two sides wave flags and beat drums and shoot one another dead. It always begins this way, making speeches, talking about rights, and all that sort of thing.' But what is it for? What do they get out of it?' I don't know,' he said. 'To tell you the truth, I don't think they know themselves.

I suppose once you've been accused of being a witch, you're never really safe. People may blame all sorts of accidents and misfortunes on you.

I don't believe in a lot of baggage. It's such a nuisance. Life's too short to fuss with it. And it isn't really necessary

Money, he said, is a terrible nuisance. But it's nice not to have to worry.

Was it the Twilight of Magic? Perhaps. But only today's. Magic could never die while the sun had the power to rise again and man had the wish to seek.

You stupid piece of warm bacon.

S)ome people you will always have about you whom you can trust, and no man these days can boast of more than that. Remember them; forget the others.

Great decisions often take no more than a moment in the making.

Dear me, what an unsatisfactory world it was! When one did find a nice kind of life something or somebody always seemed to shove you out of it just as you were beginning to enjoy it.

time for tea.

It is a horrible thing, money. But it is also horrible to be the only one who hasn't got any. One of my chief complaints against people has always been that they had no respect for animals. But many people have a great respect for money. Animals with bank accounts of their own will be in a position to insist upon respect.

It certainly was a most beautiful insect. It was pale blue underneath; but its back was glossy black with huge red spots on it.

What I am wondering, said the Doctor, is where we are going to get another boat to go home in...Oh well, perhaps we'll find one lying about on the beach that nobody is using.

The noise they made was so great that sailors far out at sea thought that a terrible storm was coming. Hark to that gale howling in the East! they said.

Never lift your foot till you come to the stile.

Most of them were champions at spoiling good food.

landscape, it was a