Quotes from L. Frank Baum

If you only have brains on your head you would be as good a man as any of them, and a better man than some of them. Brains are the only things worth having in this world, no matter whether one is a crow or a man.

Folklore, legends, myths and fairy tales have followed childhood through the ages, for every healthy youngster has a wholesome and instinctive love for stories fantastic, marvelous and manifestly unreal. The winged fairies of Grimm and Andersen have brought more happiness to childish hearts than all other human creations.

Those who remember are usually the unhappy ones. Only those who are able to forget, find the most joy in life.

The Tin Woodman knew very well he had no heart, and therefore he took great care never to be cruel or unkind to anything. You people with hearts, he said, have something to guide you, and need never do wrong; but I have no heart, and so I must be very careful.

Why, anybody can have a brain. That's a very mediocre commodity. Every pusillanimous creature that crawls on the Earth or slinks through slimy seas has a brain. Back where I come from, we have universities, seats of great learning, where men go to become great thinkers. And when they come out, they think deep thoughts and with no more brains than you have. But they have one thing you haven't got: a diploma.

In this world in which we live simplicity and kindness are the only magic wands that work wonders

In all this world there is nothing so beautiful as a happy child.

I'm glad I don't know everything, Dorothy, and that there still are things in both nature and in wit for me to marvel at.

I shall really be very unhappy unless you give me the sort of courage that makes one forget he is afraid.

Everything in life is unusual until you get accustomed to it -The Scarecrow - The Marvellous Land Of Oz by L. Frank Baum pg 103 chapter 13

People often do a good deed without hope of reward, but for an evil deed they always demand payment.

While I was in love I was the happiest man on earth.

Oh, if Shakespeare says it, that's all right.

It was Toto that made Dorothy laugh, and saved her from growing as gray as her other surroundings. Toto was not gray; he was a little black dog, with long silky hair and small black eyes that twinkled merrily on either side of his funny, wee nose. Toto played all day long, and Dorothy played with him, and loved him dearly.

Do not despair whatever happens for behind the clouds is always the rainbow.

Do not, I beg of you, dampen today's sun with the showers of tomorrow. - Emperor Nick Chopper (The Tin Woodsman) -The Marvellous Land Of Oz by L. Frank Baum pg 86 chapter 11

Everything in life is unusual until you get accustomed to it.

But that isn't right. The King of Beasts shouldn't be a coward,' said the Scarecrow. 'I know it,' returned the Lion, wiping a tear from his eye with the tip of his tail. 'It is my great sorrow, and makes my life very unhappy. But whenever there is danger, my heart begins to beat fast.' 'Perhaps you have heart disease,' said the Tin Woodman. 'It may be,' said the Lion.

For although I feel that I know a tremendous lot, I am not yet aware how much there is in the world to find out about. It will take me a little time to discover whether I am very wise or very foolish - Jack Pumpkinhead - The Marvellous Land Of Oz by L. Frank Baum pg 20 chapter 2

No Queen with a frozen heart is fit to rule any country.

Stunt dwarf or destroy the imagination of a child and you have taken away its chances of success in life. Imagination transforms the commonplace into the great and creates the new out of the old.

Everything perishes except the world itself and its keepers...But while life lasts everything on earth has its use. The wise seek ways to be helpful to the world, for the helpful ones are sure to live again.

If we didn't want anything, we would never get anything, good or bad. I think our longings are natural, and if we act as nature prompts us we can't go far wrong.

We dare not harm this little girl, he said to them, for she is protected by the Power of Good, and that is greater than the Power of Evil. All we can do is carry her to the castle of the Wicked Witch and leave her there.