“Like “love,” “hope” is one of those ridiculously disproportional words that by all rights should be a lot longer.”

“I understood the word 'swoon'. It felt that way, like 'sweep' and 'moon' and 'woo', all those words smashed together in one word that stood for that feeling, right then.”

“Unrequited love is a ridiculous state, and it makes those in it behave ridiculously.”

“Forgiveness, reader, is, I think, something very much like hope and love - a powerful, wonderful thing.
And a ridiculous thing, too.”

“Hope, like faith, is nothing if it is not courageous; it is nothing if it is not ridiculous.”

“I have hated words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right.”

“What the world wants is character. The world is in need of those whose life is one burning love, selfless. That love will make every word tell like a thunderbolt.”

“I should like to freeze in time all those I do love… Rather like flowers pressed between the pages of a book!”

“The small hopes and plans and pleasures of children should be tenderly respected by grown-up people, and never rudely thwarted or ridiculed.”

“Love is ridiculous. But love is also wonderful. And powerful. And Despereaux's love for the Princess Pea would prove, in time, to be all of these things: powerful, wonderful, and ridiculous.”