Lois Lowry Quotes

“It was almost December, and Jonas was beginning to be frightened.”

“For all for children
To whom we entrust the future”

“It's just that… without the memories it's all meaningless.”

“Memory is the happiness of being alone.”

“If you were to be lost in the river, Jonas, your memories would not be lost with you. Memories are forever.”

“The man that I named The Giver passed along to the boy knowledge, history, memories, color, pain, laughter, love, and truth. Every time you place a book in the hands of a child, you do the same thing.”

“And here in this room, I re-experience the memories again and again it is how wisdom comes and how we shape our future.”

“Memories are forever.”

“When people have the freedom to choose, they choose wrong, every single time.”

“Behind him, across vast distances of space and time, from the place he had left, he thought he heard music too. But perhaps it was only an echo.”

“It is very risky. But each time a child opens a book, he pushes open the gate that separates him from Elsewhere.”

“For the first time, he heard something that he knew to be music. He heard people singing. Behind him, across vast distances of space and time, from the place he had left, he thought he heard music too. But perhaps, it was only an echo.”

“It is so good to have friends who understand how there is a time for crying and a time for laughing, and that sometimes the two are very close together.”

“We gained control of many things. But we had to let go of others.”

“It's the choosing that's important, isn't it?”

“It is much easier to be brave if you do not know everything.”

“I feel sorry for anyone who is in a place where he feels strange and stupid.”

“The life where nothing was ever unexpected. Or inconvenient. Or unusual. The life without colour, pain or past.”

“They were satisfied with their lives which had none of the vibrance his own was taking on. And he was angry at himself, that he could not change that for them.”

“He wept, and it felt as if the tears were cleansing him, as if his body needed to empty itself.”

“Teasing's part of the fun that comes before kissing”

“There is something about that moment, when literature becomes accessible, and a door of the world opens.”

“Gabe?"
The newchild stirred slightly in his sleep. Jonas looked over at him.
"There could be love", Jonas whispered.”

“Today is declared an unscheduled holiday.”

“Ellen had said that her mother was afraid of the ocean, that it was too cold and too big. The sky was, too, thought Annemarie. The whole world was: too cold, too big. And too cruel.”

“If everything's the same, then there aren't any choices! I want to wake up in the morning and decide things!”

“You may lie.”

“He knew that there was no quick comfort for emotions like those. They were deeper and they did not need to be told. They were felt.”

“I don't know what you mean when you say 'the whole world' or 'generations before him.'I thought there was only us. I thought there was only now.”

“He hunched his shoulders and tried to make himself smaller in the seat. He wanted to disappear, to fade away, not to exist.”

“What if they were allowed to choose their own mate? And chose wrong?”

“She fell asleep, and it was a sleep as thin as the night clouds, dotted with dreams that came and went like the stars.”

“Fear dims when you learn things.”

“He wept because he was afraid now that he could not save Gabriel. He no longer cared about himself”

“Mama was crying, and the rain made it seem as if the whole world was crying.”

“My instructors in science and technology have taught us about how the brain works. It's full of electrical impulses. It's like a computer. If you stimulate one part of the brain with an electrode, it…
- They know nothing.”

“It's hard to give up the being together with someone.”

“It be better, I think, to climb out in search of something, instead of hating, what you're leaving.”

“Genius disregards the boundaries of propriety. Genius is permitted to shout if shouting is productive.”

“The community of the Giver had achieved at such great price. A community without danger or pain. But also, a community without music, color or art. And books.”

“The whole world had changed. Only the fairy tales remained the same. "And they lived happily ever after”

“But there was nothing left to do but continue”

“There was just a moment when things weren't quite the same, weren't quite as they had always been through the long friendship”

“Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps the singing bird will come.”

“Because of fear, they made shelter and found food and grew things. For the same reason, weapons were stored, waiting.”

“He was free to enjoy the breathless glee that overwhelmed him: the speed, the clear cold air, the total silence, the feeling of balance and excitement and peace.”

“… what words could you use which would give another the experience of sunshine?”

“… how could you describe a hill and snow to someone who had never felt height or wind or that feathery, magical cold?”

“Take pride in your pain," her mother had always told her. "You are stronger than those who have none.”

“Once she read a book but found it distasteful because it contained adjectives.”

“We're the ones who will fill in the blank places. Maybe we can make it different.”

“Pretending doesn't keep you safe.”

“.. you have more than you know. And people will want what you have.”

“That's why they call you Seer. You see more than most.”