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So many things are possible just as long as you don't know they're impossible.
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Norton Juster |
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Expect everything, I always say, and the unexpected never happens.
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Norton Juster |
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Have you ever heard the wonderful silence just before the dawn? Or the quiet and calm just as a storm ends? Or perhaps you know the silence when you haven't the answer to a question you've been asked, or the hush of a country road at night, or the expectant pause of a room full of people when someone is just about to speak, or, most beautiful of all, the moment after the door closes and you're alone in the whole house? Each one is different..
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silence
quiet
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Norton Juster |
3111911
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The most important reason for going from one place to another is to see what's in between, and they took great pleasure in doing just that.
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philosophy
quest
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Norton Juster |
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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.
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Norton Juster |
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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.
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Norton Juster |
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The only thing you can do easily is be wrong, and that's hardly worth the effort.
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Norton Juster |
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You may not see it now," said the Princess of Pure Reason, looking knowingly at Milo's puzzled face, "but whatever we learn has a purpose and whatever we do affects everything and everyone else, if even in the tiniest way. Why, when a housefly flaps his wings, a breeze goes round the world; when a speck of dust falls to the ground, the entire planet weighs a little more; and when you stamp your foot, the earth moves slightly off its course...
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Norton Juster |
1ccee3b
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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.
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Norton Juster |
e07f6ba
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Everybody is so terribly sensitive about the things they know best.
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Norton Juster |
4b0f220
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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.
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fiction
reality
imagination
fantasy
humor
imaginary
illusions
on-fiction
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Norton Juster |
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You can swim all day in the Sea of Knowledge and not get wet.
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Norton Juster |
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It has been a long trip," said Milo, climbing onto the couch where the princesses sat; "but we would have been here much sooner if I hadn't made so many mistakes. I'm afraid it's all my fault." "You must never feel badly about making mistakes," explained Reason quietly, "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."
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lessons
mistakes
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Norton Juster |
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The most important reason for going from one place to another is to see what's in between.
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Norton Juster |
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It's bad enough wasting time without killing it.
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Norton Juster |
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But just because you can never reach it, doesn't mean that it's not worth looking for.
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Norton Juster |
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Just because you have a choice, it doesn't mean that any of them 'has' to be right.
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Norton Juster |
5c0acfe
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what you learn today, for no reason at all, will help you discover all the wonderful secrets of tomorrow.
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education
inspirational
pure-science
curiosity
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Norton Juster |
be72276
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There are no wrong roads to anywhere.
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Norton Juster |
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For instance," said the boy again, "if Christmas trees were people and people were Christmas trees, we'd all be chopped down, put up in the living room, and covered in tinsel, while the trees opened our presents." "What does that have to do with it?" asked Milo. "Nothing at all," he answered, "but it's an interesting possibility, don't you think?"
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Norton Juster |
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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." --
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Norton Juster |
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Expectations is the place you must always go to before you get to where you're going.
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Norton Juster |
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Would it be possible for me to see something from up there?" asked Milo politely. "You could," said Alec, "but only if you try very hard to look at things as an adult does." Milo tried as hard as he could, and, as he did, his feet floated slowly off the ground until he was standing in the air next to Alex Bings. He looked around very quickly and, an instant later, crashed back down to the earth again. "Interesting, wasn't it?" asked Alex. "..
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perspective
childhood
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Norton Juster |
4a2d22d
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A slavish concern for the composition of words is the sign of a bankrupt intellect. Be gone, odious wasp! You smell of decayed syllables.
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storytelling
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Norton Juster |
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Things which are equally bad are also equally good. Try to look at the bright side of things. - Humbug
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Norton Juster |
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it's very much like your trying to reach infinity. You know that it's there, you just don't know where-but just because you can never reach it doesn't mean that it's not worth looking for.
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infinity
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Norton Juster |
12150a7
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Have you ever heard a blindfolded octopus unwrap a cellophane-covered bathtub?
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kids
fiction
fantasy
bathtub
silly
hearing
sound
octopus
nonsense
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Norton Juster |
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And remember, also," added the Princess of Sweet Rhyme, "that many places you would like to see are just off the map and many things you want to know are just out of sight or a little beyond your reach. But someday you'll reach them all, for what you learn today, for no reason at all, will help you discover all the wonderful secrets of tomorrow."
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Norton Juster |
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As the cheering continued, Rhyme leaned forward and touched Milo gently on the shoulder. "They're cheering for you," she said with a smile. "But I could never have done it," he objected, "without everyone else's help." "That may be true," said Reason gravely, "but you had the courage to try; and what you can do is often simply a matter of what you *will* do." "That's why," said Azaz, "there was one very important thing about your qu..
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Norton Juster |
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I'll continue to see things as a child. It's not so far to fall.
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Norton Juster |
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If you want sense, you'll have to make it yourself.
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sense
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Norton Juster |
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In this box are all the words I know...Most of them you will never need, some you will use constantly, but with them you may ask all the questions which have never been answered and answer all the questions which have never been asked. All the great books of the past and all the ones yet to come are made with these words. With them there is no obstacle you cannot overcome. All you must learn to do is to use them well and in the right places..
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Norton Juster |
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What you can do is often simply a matter of what you will do.
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Norton Juster |
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Expect everything so that nothing comes unexpected.
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Norton Juster |
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Since you got here by not thinking, it seems reasonable to expect that, in order to get out, you must start thinking.
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Norton Juster |
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But why do only unimportant things?" asked Milo, who suddenly remembered how much time he spent each day doing them. "Think of all the trouble it saves," the man explained, and his face looked as if he'd be grinning an evil grin--if he could grin at all. "If you only do the easy and useless jobs, you'll never have to worry about the important ones which are so difficult. You just won't have the time. For there's always something to do to ke..
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wasting-time
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Norton Juster |
7527e0f
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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."
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words
wisdom
tock
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Norton Juster |
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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."
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Norton Juster |
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And now," he continued, speaking to Milo, "where were you on the night of July 27?" "What does that have to do with it?" asked Milo. "It's my birthday, that's what," said the policeman as he entered "Forgot my birthday" in his little book. "Boys always forget other people's birthdays."
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Norton Juster |
a43fc17
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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.
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Norton Juster |
86d6c61
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You can't improve sound by having only silence. The problem is to use each at the proper time.
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Norton Juster |
f3a0473
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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.
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Norton Juster |
ca08973
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I don't know of any wrong road to Dictionopolis, so if this road goes to Dictionopolis at all it must be the right road, and if it doesn't it must be the right road to somewhere else, because there are no wrong roads to anywhere. Do you think it will rain?
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Norton Juster |
c5f19cc
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But I suppose there's a lot to see everywhere, if only you keep your eyes open.
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Norton Juster |