“We have mastered our surroundings, increased food production, built cities, established empires and created far-flung trade networks. But did we decrease the amount of suffering in the world?”
“For a million years humans had grown up with a personal daily knowledge of the vault of heaven. In the last few thousand years they began building and emigrating to the cities. ”
“Build a house for men and birds.
Sit with them and play music.
For a day, for just one day,
talk about that which disturbs no one
and bring some peace,
my friend,
into your beautiful eyes.”
“Most beasts are quite friendly, but still, in some lands, some beasts are too dangerous to catch with bare hands. For those that are ugly and vicious and mean I’ll build a Bad-Animal-Catching-Machine. It’s rather expensive to build such a kit, but with it a hunger can never get bit.”
“Well, Daddy is going to own that building, ‘cause I’m gonna fly over it and give it to him. Then it won’t matter that he’s not in their old union, or whether he’s colored a half-breed Indian, like they say.”
“Tonight we’re going up to Tar Beach. Mommy is roasting peanuts and frying chicken, and Daddy will bring home a watermelon. Mr. and Mrs. Honey will bring the beer and their old green card table. And then the stars will fall around me, and I will fly to the union building.”
“The squirrels had made their nest out of sticks. ‘I will build myself a stick nest!’ said Kipper. But Kipper’s nest was not very good. He could only find...three sticks!”
“They watched it rising up, as straight and smooth as an elevator on its way to the very top floor of a building taller than the tallest tree. They run downstairs and went outside. Up and up went the balloon, jerkily, fidgety now, and fits and starts like a rock climber zig-zagging up a cliff.”
“A truck brought furniture, a television set, a radio, rugs, pictures, a stove and lots of other things. The house was ready for the new family. At last the new family has arrived! Look! It is Stitches, the tailor! Stitches paid the workmen for building the house.”
“But there came to the Crumpetty Tree Mr. and Mrs. Canary; And they said, ‘Did you ever see any spot so charmingly airy may we build a nest on your charming hat Mr Quangle Wangle? Grant us that!’ ”
“The sea-thing child stopped building sea-stone igloos, but sometimes he made little heaps of stones and sea-glass and sea-china, and drew a circle in the sand and around them sat inside the circle.”