Quotes from book

The Phantom Tollbooth

“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.”

“Let me try once more," Milo said in an effort to explain. "In other words--"
"You mean you have other words?" cried the bird happily. "Well, by all means, use them. You're certainly not doing very well with the ones you have now.”

“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.”

“Things which are equally bad are also equally good. Try to look at the bright side of things.
- Humbug”

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

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

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

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

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

“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?”

“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.”

“If you want sense, you'll have to make it yourself.”

“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.”

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

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