“You gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you ain’t where you wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that and that ain’t you. You’re better than that!”
“Sometimes we may act like Sniff, who sniffs out change early, or Scurry who scurries into action, or Hem who denies and resists change as he fears it will lead to something worse, or Haw who learns to adapt in time when he sees changing can lead to something better!”
“Everyone knows that not all change is good or even necessary. But in a world that is constantly changing, it is to our advantage to learn how to adapt and enjoy something better.”
“Wasn’t it lucky that Matt’s robbers were so much better, Ronia thought. She looked at them as they sat at the long table slurping up their soup. They were bearded and unwashed and noisy and wild, but no one was going to call them dirty devils in her hearing.”
“When [Albert’s father] came back into the stable afterward and began to sweet-talk me and held out a bucket of sweet-smelling oats, I was immediately suspicious. But the oats and my own inquisitiveness overcame my better judgment.”
“When people we love are suffering, we want to make it better. But sometimes - often, in fact - you can’t make it better. I’m reminded of something my supervisor said to me when I was a student chaplain: “Don’t just do something. Stand there.”
″ ‘No, it will not,’ replied the voice. ‘You shall not be the worse for it - I promise you that. You will be much the better for it. Just believe what I say, and do as I tell you.’ ”
″ ‘The ruby has fallen out of his sword, his eyes are gone, and he is golden no longer,’ said the Mayor in fact, ‘he is little better than a beggar.’ ”
“But this butterfly was golden.
‘What can that mean?’ said Moomintroll. ‘I’ve never seen a golden butterfly before.’
‘Gold is even better than yellow,’ said the Snork Maiden.”
“She was very proud of them, not because they were really any better than anybody else’s ballet shoes, but because they had been given her by her mother, and she was the only one with a mother, so it seemed rather grand.”
“I’m king of a cow! And I’m king of a mule! I’m king of a house! And a bush! And a cat! But that isn’t all. I’ll do better than that! My throne shall be higher!”
“Making a choice that is 1 percent better or 1 percent worse seems insignificant in the moment, but over the span of moments that make up a lifetime these choices determine the difference between who you are and who you could be.”
“How can you say that? I admit that I think that it is better to be beautiful than to be good. But on the other hand, no one is more ready than I am to acknowledge that it is better to be good than to be ugly.”