Norton Juster quotes - page 3

Whatever we learn has a purpose and whatever we do affects everything and everyone else, if even in the tiniest way. Why, when a housefly flaps his wings, a breeze goes round the world; when a speck of dust falls to the ground, the entire planet weighs a little more; and when you stamp your foot, the earth moves slightly off its course. Whenever you laugh, gladness spreads like the ripples in the pond; and whenever you're sad, no one anywhere can be really happy. And it's much the same thing with knowledge, for whenever you learn something new, the whole world becomes that much richer. (Norton Juster)
The most important reason for going from one place to another is to see what's in between, and they took great pleasure in doing just that. View quote
Norton Juster
Have you ever heard the wonderful silence just before the dawn? Or the quiet and calm just as a storm ends? Or perhaps you know the silence when you haven't the answer to a question you've been asked, or the hush of a country road at night, or the expectant pause in a roomful of people when someone is just about to speak, or, most beautiful of all, the moment after the door closes and you're all alone in the whole house? Each one is different, you know, and all very beautiful, if you listen carefully. View quote
Norton Juster
The way you see things depends a great deal on where you look at them from. View quote
Norton Juster
What you learn today, for no reason at all, will help you discover all the wonderful secrets of tomorrow. View quote
Norton Juster
No one paid any attention to how things looked, and as they moved faster and faster everything grew uglier and dirtier, and as everything grew uglier and dirtier they moved faster and faster, and at last a very strange thing began to happen. Because nobody cared, the city slowly began to disappear. Day by day the buildings grew fainter and fainter, and the streets faded away, until at last it was entirely invisible. There was nothing to see at all. View quote
Norton Juster
Freedom is not a license for chaos. View quote
Norton Juster
I know one thing for certain; it is much harder to tell whether you are lost than whether you were lost, for, on many occasions, where you are going is exactly where you are. On the other hand, if you often find that where you've been is not at all where you should have gone, and, since it's much more difficult to find your way back from someplace you've never left, I suggest you go there immediately and then decide. View quote
Norton Juster
Why not? That's a good reason for almost anything - a bit used perhaps, but still quite serviceable. View quote
Norton Juster
Perhaps someday you can have one city as easy to see as Illusions and as hard to forget as Reality. View quote
Norton Juster
That's the way most everyone gets here. It's really quite simple: every time you decide something without having a good reason, you jump to Conclusions whether you like it or not. It's such an easy trip to make that I've been here hundreds of times. (Norton Juster)
When he was in school he longed to be out, and when he was out he longed to be in. On the way he thought about coming home, and coming home he thought about going. Wherever he was he wished he were somewhere else, and when he got there he wondered why he'd even bothered. View quote
Norton Juster
And remember, also," added the Princess of Sweet Rhyme, "that many places you would like to see are just off the map and many things you want to know are just out of sight or a little beyond your reach. But someday you'll reach them all, for what you learn today, for no reason at all, will help you discover all the wonderful secrets of tomorrow. View quote
Norton Juster
I am the Terrible Trivium, demon of petty tasks and worthless jobs, ogre of wasted effort, and monster of habit. View quote
Norton Juster
There is much worth noticing that often escapes the eye. View quote
Norton Juster
Expectations is the place you must always go to before you get to where you're going. Of course, some people never go beyond Expectations, but my job is to hurry them along whether they like it or not. View quote
Norton Juster
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. View quote
Norton Juster
Expectations is the place you must always go to before you get to where you're going. View quote
Norton Juster
In this box are all the words I know... Most of them you will never need, some you will use constantly, but with them you may ask all the questions which have never been answered and answer all the questions which have never been asked. All the great books of the past and all the ones yet to come are made with these words. With them there is no obstacle you cannot overcome. All you must learn to do is use them well and in the right places. View quote
Norton Juster
...it's just as bad to live in a place where what you do see isn't there as it is to live in one where what you don't see is. View quote
Norton Juster
He paused again as a tear of longing rolled from cheek to lip with the sweet-salty taste of an old memory. (Norton Juster)
Just as I thought: boys are the cause of everything. View quote
Norton Juster
And some looked even more like each other than they did like themselves. View quote
Norton Juster
And that's why people no longer care which words they use as long as they use lots of them. View quote
Norton Juster
Many of the things which can never be, often are. View quote
Norton Juster