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Dr. Seuss Quotes
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Theodor Seuss Geisel was an American author, political cartoonist, poet, animator, book publisher, and artist, best known for authoring children's books under the pen name Dr. Seuss . His work includes several of the most popular children's books of all time, selling over 600 million copies and being translated into more than 20 languages by the time of his death.

Geisel adopted his "Dr. Seuss" pen name during his university studies at Dartmouth College and the University of Oxford. He left Oxford in 1927 to begin his career as an illustrator and cartoonist for Vanity Fair, Life, and various other publications. He also worked as an illustrator for advertising campaigns, most notably for Flit and Standard Oil, and as a political cartoonist for the New York newspaper PM. He published his first children's book And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street in 1937. During World War II, he worked in an animation department of the United States Army where he produced several short films, including Design for Death, which later won the 1947 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

After the war, Geisel focused on children's books, writing classics such as If I Ran the Zoo , Horton Hears a Who! , If I Ran the Circus , The Cat in the Hat , How the Grinch Stole Christmas! , and Green Eggs and Ham . He published over 60 books during his career, which have spawned numerous adaptations, including 11 television specials, four feature films, a Broadway musical, and four television series. He won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1958 for Horton Hatches the Egg and again in 1961 for And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. Geisel's birthday, March 2, has been adopted as the annual date for National Read Across America Day, an initiative on reading created by the National Education Association.

✵ 2. March 1904 – 24. September 1991   •   Other names Dr. Seuss, Др Сјус
Dr. Seuss photo
Dr. Seuss: 185   quotes 139   likes

Dr. Seuss Quotes

“Just never forget to be dexterous and deft.
And never mix up your right foot with your left.
And will you succeed?
Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.)”

Dr. Seuss

Source: Oh, The Places You'll Go!

Forgetting

“The news just came in from the County of Keck
That a very small bug by the name of Van Vleck
Is yawning so wide you can look down his neck.
This may not seem very important, I know, but it
Is, so I'm bothering telling you so.”

Dr. Seuss

“The Sneetches got really quite smart on that day. The day they decided that Sneetches are Sneetches. And no kind of Sneetch is the best on the beaches. That day, all the Sneetches forgot about stars and whether they had one, or not, upon thars.”

Dr. Seuss

Source: Sneetches are Sneetches: Learn About Same and Different

Star

“You make 'em, I amuse 'em.”

Dr. Seuss

Statement about children, as quoted in Enter, Conversing (1962) by Clifton Fadiman, p. 108

“Well, in Who-ville they say
That the Grinch's small heart
Grew 3 sizes that day.”

Dr. Seuss

How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1957)
Source: How the Grinch stole Christmas! And other stories

Heart

“Pop guns! And bicycles! Roller skates! Drums! Checkerboards! Tricycles! Popcorn! And plums!
And he stuffed them in bags. Then the Grinch, very nimbly,
Stuffed all the bags, one by one, up the chimbley!”

Dr. Seuss book How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

Source: How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

“Now, the Star-Belly Sneetches had bellies with stars. The Plain-Belly Sneetches had none upon thars.”

Dr. Seuss book The Sneetches and Other Stories

Source: The Sneetches and Other Stories

Star

“And that is a story that no one can beat,
When I say that I saw it on Mulberry Street.”

Dr. Seuss book And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street

And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street (1937)
Source: And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street

“When at last we are sure
You’ve been properly pilled,
Then a few paper forms
Must be properly filled
So that you and your heirs
May be properly billed.”

Dr. Seuss Horton Hears a Who!

You're Only Old Once! : A Book for Obsolete Children (1986)
Source: Horton Hears a Who!

“You're going to be roped!
And you're going to be caged!
And, as for your dust speck – hah!
That we shall boil in a hot steaming kettle of Beezle-Nut Oil!”

Dr. Seuss Horton Hears a Who!

Horton Hears a Who! (1954)

“So, on beyond Z!
It's high time you were shown
That you really don't know
All there is to be known.”

Dr. Seuss book On Beyond Zebra!

On Beyond Zebra! (1955)

Time

“Young cat! If you keep
Your eyes open enough,
Oh, the stuff you will learn!
The most wonderful stuff!”

Dr. Seuss

I Can Read With My Eyes Shut! (1978)

Cats , Learning

“"So…
Catch!" calls the Once-ler.
He lets something fall.
"It's a Truffula Seed.
It's the last one of all!
You're in charge of the last of the Truffula Seeds.
And Truffula Trees are what everyone needs.
Plant a new Truffula. Treat it with care.
Give it clean water. And feed it fresh air.
Grow a forest. Protect it from axes that hack.
Then the Lorax
and all of his friends
may come back."”

Dr. Seuss The Lorax

The Lorax (1971)

Tree , Water

“On the 15th of May, in the Jungle of Nool,
In the heat of the day, in the cool of the pool,
He was splashing… enjoying the jungle's great joys…
When Horton the elephant heard a small noise.”

Dr. Seuss Horton Hears a Who!

Horton Hears a Who! (1954)

Joy

“… and the wolf chewed up the children and spit out their bones … But those were Foreign Children and it really didn’t matter …”

Dr. Seuss

Caption to a political cartoon against the "America First" movement, showing children being read a story of "Adolf the Wolf", in PM Magazine (1 October 1941)

Children , Wolf

“Now all that was left 'neath the bad-smelling sky
was my big empty factory…
the Lorax…
and I.
The Lorax said nothing.
Just gave me a glance,
just gave me a very sad, sad backward glance,
as he lifted himself by the seat of his pants.
And I'll never forget the grim look on his face
when he heisted himself and took leave of this place,
through a hole in the smog, without leaving a trace.
And all that the Lorax left here in this mess
was a small pile of rocks with the one word:
UNLESS.”

Dr. Seuss The Lorax

Whatever that meant . . . well, I just couldn't guess.
The Lorax (1971)

Sadness , Forgetting

“My friends!", cried the elephant.
"Tell me! Do tell!
Are you safe? Are you sound?
Are you whole? Are you well?”

Dr. Seuss Horton Hears a Who!

Horton Hears a Who! (1954)

“So...
Catch!”

Dr. Seuss The Lorax

calls the Once-ler.
He lets something fall.
"It's a Truffula Seed.
It's the last one of all!
You're in charge of the last of the Truffula Seeds.
And Truffula Trees are what everyone needs.
Plant a new Truffula. Treat it with care.
Give it clean water. And feed it fresh air.
Grow a forest. Protect it from axes that hack.
Then the Lorax
and all of his friends
may come back."
The Lorax (1971)

“In the places I go there are things that I see
That I never could spell if I stopped with the Z.
I'm telling you this 'cause you're one of my friends.
My alphabet starts where your alphabet ends!”

Dr. Seuss book On Beyond Zebra!

On Beyond Zebra! (1955)

“I am Sam.
Sam-I-Am.”

Dr. Seuss book Green Eggs and Ham

Green Eggs and Ham (1960)

“From there to here,
from here to there,
funny things are everywhere.”

Dr. Seuss book One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish

One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish (1960)

“That Sam-I-Am!
That Sam-I-Am!
I do not like that Sam-I-Am!”

Dr. Seuss book Green Eggs and Ham

Green Eggs and Ham (1960)

“It's a troublesome world. All the people who're in it
are troubled with troubles almost every minute.
You oughta be thankful, a whole heaping lot,
For the places and people you're lucky you're not!”

Dr. Seuss book Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?

The last sentence of this statement is often misquoted as "You oughta be thankful, a whole heaping lot, / For the people and places you're lucky you're not!"
Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are? (1973)

People , World

“Only you can control your future.”

Dr. Seuss