Norton Juster Quotes

“We never choose which words to use, for as long as they mean what they mean to mean, we don’t care if they make sense or nonsense.”

“We're right here on this very spot. Besides, being lost is never a matter of not knowing where you are; it's a matter of not knowing where you aren't - and I don't care at all about where I'm not.”

“You must never feel badly about making mistakes… 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.”

“Ah, this is fine," he cried triumphantly, holding up a small medallion on a chain. He dusted it off, and engraved on one side were the words "WHY NOT?" "That's a good reason for almost anything - a bit used perhaps, but still quite serviceable.”

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

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

“Time is a gift, given to you, given to give you the time you need, the time you need to have the time of your life.”

“The only thing you can do easily is be wrong, and that's hardly worth the effort.”

“Everybody is so terribly sensitive about the things they know best.”

“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.”

“You can swim all day in the Sea of Knowledge and not get wet.”

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

“The most important reason for going from one place to another is to see what's in between.”

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

“There are no wrong roads to anywhere.”

“… what you learn today, for no reason at all, will help you discover all the wonderful secrets of tomorrow.”

“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.
- Humbug”

“A slavish concern for the composition of words is the sign of a bankrupt intellect. Be gone, odious wasp! You smell of decayed syllables.”

“Have you ever heard a blindfolded octopus unwrap a cellophane-covered bathtub?”

“… it's not just learning that's important. It's learning what to do with what you learn and learning why you learn things that matters.”

“… 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.”

“Expect everything so that nothing comes unexpected.”

“Since you got here by not thinking, it seems reasonable to expect that, in order to get out, you must start thinking.”

“You see, to tall men I'm a midget, and to short men I'm a giant; to the skinny ones I'm a fat man, and to the fat ones I'm a thin man.”

“You can't improve sound by having only silence. The problem is to use each at the proper time.”

“I never knew words could be so confusing," Milo said to Tock as he bent down to scratch the dog's ear.
"Only when you use a lot to say a little," answered Tock.
Milo thought this was quite the wisest thing he'd heard all day.”

“But I suppose there's a lot to see everywhere, if only you keep your eyes open.”

“For you often learn more by being wrong for the right reasons than you do by being right for the wrong reasons.”

“Infinity is a dreadfully poor place. They can never manage to make ends meet.”

“The Mathemagician nodded knowingly and stroked his chin several times. “You’ll find,” he remarked gently, “that the only thing you can do easily is be wrong, and that’s hardly worth the effort.”

“Sometimes I find the best way of getting from one place to another is simply to erase everything and begin again.”

“Is everyone who lives in Ignorance like you?" asked Milo.
"Much worse," he said longingly. "But I don't live here. I'm from a place very far away called Context.”

“You see… it's really quite strenuous doing nothing all day, so once a week we take a holiday and go nowhere, which was just where we were going when you came along. Would you care to join us?”

“Oh dear, all those words again," thought Milo as he climbed into the wagon with Tock and the cabinet members. "How are you going to make it move? It doesn't have a--" "Be very quiet," advised the duke, "for it goes without saying.”