Kenneth Grahame: Quotes about the world

“The world has held great Heroes,
As history books have showed;
But never a name to go down to fame
Compared with that of Toad!”

Kenneth Grahame book The Wind in the Willows

Source: The Wind in the Willows (1908), Ch. 10, "The Further Adventures Of Toad"

Books , World , History

“The most modest and retiring dragon in the world, if he's as big as four cart-horses and covered with blue scales, cannot keep altogether out of the public view.”

Kenneth Grahame book The Reluctant Dragon

Dream Days (1898), The Reluctant Dragon
Context: The most modest and retiring dragon in the world, if he's as big as four cart-horses and covered with blue scales, cannot keep altogether out of the public view. And so in the village tavern of nights the fact that a real live dragon sat brooding in the cave on the Downs was naturally a subject for talk.

World , Horse

“This is an evil world, and sometimes I begin to think that all the wickedness in it is not entirely bottled up inside the dragons”

Kenneth Grahame book The Reluctant Dragon

Dream Days (1898), The Reluctant Dragon
Context: "Our villagers are the biggest story-tellers in all the country round. It's a known fact. You're a stranger in these parts, or else you'd have heard it already. All they want is a fight. They're the most awful beggars for getting up fights — it's meat and drink to them. … I've no doubt they've been telling you what a hero you were, and how you were bound to win, in the cause of right and justice, and so on; but let me tell you, I came down the street just now, and they were betting six to four on the dragon freely!"
"Six to four on the dragon!" murmured St. George sadly, resting his cheek on his hand. "This is an evil world, and sometimes I begin to think that all the wickedness in it is not entirely bottled up inside the dragons..."

World , Thinking , Evil

“Here today, up and off to somewhere else tomorrow! Travel, change, interest, excitement! The whole world before you, and a horizon that's always changing!”

Kenneth Grahame book The Wind in the Willows

Source: The Wind in the Willows (1908), Ch. 2

World , Travel , Change

“Beyond the Wild Wood comes the Wide World,' said the Rat. 'And that's something that doesn't matter, either to you or me. I've never been there, and I'm never going, nor you either, if you've got any sense at all.”

Kenneth Grahame book The Wind in the Willows

Source: The Wind in the Willows (1908), Ch. 1

World , Sense

“when tired at last, he sat on the bank, while the river still chattered on to him, a babbling procession of the best stories in the world, sent from the heart of the earth to be told at last to the insatiable sea.”

Kenneth Grahame book The Wind in the Willows

Source: The Wind in the Willows

World , Heart , Sea

“Everything seems asleep, and yet going on all the time. It is a goodly
life that you lead, friend; no doubt the best in the world, if only you are
strong enough to lead it!”

Kenneth Grahame book The Wind in the Willows

Source: The Wind in the Willows

Life , World , Strong , Time

“Good, bad, and indifferent - It takes all sorts to make a world.”

Kenneth Grahame book The Wind in the Willows

Variant: It takes all sorts to make a world.
Source: The Wind in the Willows (1908), Ch. 4
Context: The Wild Wood is pretty well populated by now; with all the usual lot, good, bad, and indifferent — I name no names. It takes all sorts to make a world.

World , Indifference

“Free! The word and the thought alone were worth fifty blankets. He was warm from end to end as he thought of the jolly world outside, waiting eagerly for him to make his triumphal entrance, ready to serve him and play up to him, anxious to help him and to keep him company, as it always had been in days of old before misfortune fell upon him.”

Kenneth Grahame book The Wind in the Willows

Source: The Wind in the Willows (1908), Ch. 10

World , Waiting , Help

“Footprints in the snow have been unfailing provokers of sentiment ever since snow was first a white wonder in this drab-coloured world of ours.”

Kenneth Grahame book The Reluctant Dragon

Dream Days (1898), The Reluctant Dragon

World

“There's nobody in the world I'd sooner oblige than you and this young gentleman here. But the whole thing's nonsense, and conventionality, and popular thick-headedness. There's absolutely nothing to fight about, from beginning to end. And anyhow I'm not going to, so that settles it!”

Kenneth Grahame book The Reluctant Dragon

The dragon to St. George.
Dream Days (1898), The Reluctant Dragon

World , Fight