Norton Juster Quotes

“So many things are possible just as long as you don’t know they’re impossible.”

“But if we’d told you then, you might not have gone.”

“Expect everything, I always say, and the unexpected never happens.”

“I’m glad you made your own decision.”

“I do so hate to make up my mind about anything, whether it’s good or bad, up or down, in or out, rain or shine.”

“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 of a room full of people when someone is just about to speak, or, most beautiful of all, the moment after the door closes and you’re alone in the whole house? Each one is different, you know, and all very beautiful if you listen carefully.”

“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.”

“‘You must never feel badly about making mistakes,’ explained Reason quietly, ‘as long as you take the trouble to learn from them. For you often learn more by being wrong for the right reasons than you do by being right for the wrong reasons.‘”

“Whether or not you find your own way, you’re bound to find some way. If you happen to find my way, please return it, as it was lost years ago. I imagine by now it’s quite rusty.”

“If something is there, you can only see it with your eyes open, but if it isn’t there, you can see it just as well with your eyes closed. That’s why imaginary things are often easier to see than real ones.”

“It’s bad enough wasting time without killing it.”

“But just because you can never reach it, doesn’t mean that it’s not worth looking for.”

“Just because you have a choice, it doesn’t mean that any of them has to be right.”

“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.”

“There are no wrong roads to anywhere.”

″‘You mean you have other words?’ cried the bird happily. ‘Well, by all means, use them. You’re certainly not doing very well with the ones you have now.‘”

“Expectations is the place you must always go to before you get to where you’re going.”

“Things which are equally bad are also equally good. Try to look at the bright side of things.”

“I’ll continue to see things as a child. It’s not so far to fall.”

“If you want sense, you’ll have to make it yourself.”

“What you can do is often simply a matter of what you will do.”

“They’re shouting for you,” she said with a smile.

″‘I could never have done it,’ he objected, ‘without everyone else’s help.‘”

″‘That may be true,’ said Reason gravely, ‘but you had the courage to try.‘”

“But why do only unimportant things?”