“The boy looks at me. I would’ve expected his bright eyes to look dimmer in the night, but instead they seem to reflect the light coming from the windows above us. He’s amused. “Who said anything about you , sweetheart?”
“I’d once been fascinated by his legend - all the stories I’d heard before I met him. Now I can feel that same sense of fascination returning. I picture his face, so beautiful even after pain and torture and grief, his blue eyes bright and sincere.”
“The rosy gleam of his lip, the fevered gleam of his eyes. There was not a line anywhere on his face, nothing creased or graying; all crisp. He was spring, golden and bright. Envious death would drink his blood, and grow young again.”
“He knew, but it was not enough. The sorrow was so large it threatened to tear through my skin. When he died, all things swift and beautiful and bright would be buried with him.”
“I gasped when I saw them. Now that they were in the light, they were transparent–fully transparent … They were in fact ghosts: man-shaped stains on the brightness of that air.”
“‘Some clever children don’t discover how bright they are until after they’ve left school,’ continued Mr
Holcombe, ‘and then spend the rest of their lives regretting the wasted years.‘”
“A burning brand shows the way, and each day your flame grows brighter. There is none like you, Matthias. You have the sign of greatness upon you. One day Redwall and all the land will be indebted to you. Matthias, you are a true Warrior.”
“Toad blinked in the bright sun. ‘Help!‘, said Toad. ‘I cannot see anything.’
‘Don’t be silly,’ said Frog. ‘What you see is the clear warm light of April.’ ”
“I had this terrible sneezing cold…”
“Now this neighbor was a pig, and he wasn’t too bright either… I mean, who in his right mind builds a house out of straw?”
“I felt a sneeze coming on. I huffed, snuffed, and I sneezed… and you know what? That whole house fell down.”
“Sometimes at night, as Mr. Grinling lay sleeping in his warm bed, the ships would toot to tell him that his light was shining brightly and clearly out to sea.”
“Girls and boys come out to play,
The moon it shines as bright as day;
Leave your supper, and leave your sleep,
And come to your playmates in the street;
Come with a whoop, come with a call,
Come with a good will, or come not at all;
Up the ladder and down the wall,
A halfpenny loaf will serve us all.”