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0f6b6c1
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Why is it,' he said quietly, 'that quite often even the things which are correct just don't seem to be right?
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Norton Juster |
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8545d47
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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 do is often simply a matter of what you do."
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Norton Juster |
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45498e5
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Is everyone with one face called a Milo?" "Oh no," Milo replied; "some are called Henry or George or Robert or John or lots of other things." "How terribly confusing," he cried. "Everything here is called exactly what it is. The triangles are called triangles, the circles are called circles, and even the same numbers have the same name. Why, can you imagine what would happen if we named all the twos Henry or George or Robert or John or lots..
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names
mathematics
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Norton Juster |
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37ce61b
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You must excuse my gruff conduct," the watchdog said, after they'd been driving for some time, "but you see it's traditional for watchdogs to be ferocious."
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time-management
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Norton Juster |
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c3908a5
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I'm the Whether Man, not the Weather Man, for after all it's more important to know whether there will be weather than what the weather will be.
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Norton Juster |
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dc55670
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How are you going to make it move? It doesn't have a - " "Be very quiet," advised the duke, "for it goes without saying." And, sure enough, as soon as they were all quite still, it began to move quickly through the streets, and in a very short time they arrived at the royal palace." --
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wordplay
speech
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Norton Juster |
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0854ec2
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Now, remember: they're not for eating, but for listening, because you'll often be hungry for sounds as well as food. Here are street noises at night, train whistles from a long way off, dry leaves burning, busy department stores, crunching toast, creaking bed springs, and of course, all kinds of laughter. There's a little of each, and in far off, lonely places, I think you will be glad to have them.
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joy
sounds
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Norton Juster |
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9640ad8
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And some looked even more like each other than they did like themselves.
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Norton Juster |
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6055bc6
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People laughed less and grumbled more, sang less and shouted more, and the sounds they made grew louder and uglier. It became difficult to hear even the birds or the breeze, and soon everyone stopped listening for them.
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Norton Juster |
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eac11f9
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There's lots to do; we have a very busy schedule---- "At 8 o'clock we get up, and then we spend "From 8 to 9 daydreaming. "From 9 to 9:30 we take our early midmorning nap. "From 9:30 to 10:30 we dawdle and delay. "From 10:30 to 11:30 we take our late early morning nap. "From 11:30 to 12:00 we bide our time and then eat lunch. "From 1:00 to 2:00 we linger and loiter. "From 2:00 to 2:30 we take our early afternoon nap. "From 2:30 to 3:30 we p..
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Norton Juster |
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a7817ba
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But I'm afraid it can't be done." "Certainly not; it can't be done," repeated the Humbug. "Why not?" asked Milo. "Why not indeed?" exclaimed the bug, who seemed equally at home on either side of an argument. "Much too difficult," replied the king. "Of course," emphasized the bug, "much too difficult." "You could if you really wanted to," insisted Milo. "By all means, if you really wanted to, you could," the Humbug agreed. "How?" asked Azaz,..
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Norton Juster |
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cc2a5a0
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what you can do is often a matter of what you will do.
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Norton Juster |
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0680772
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Why, did you know that there are almost as many kinds of stillness as there are sounds? But, sadly enough, no one pays any attention to them these days.
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Norton Juster |
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7eae308
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And, most important of all," added the Mathemagician, "here is your own magic staff. Use it well and there is nothing it cannot do for you." He placed in Milo's breast pocket a small gleaming pencil which, except for the size, was much like his own."
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pencil
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Norton Juster |
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386e0f6
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What kind of a place is Expectations?" inquired Milo, unable to see the humor and feeling very doubtful of the little man's sanity. "Good question, good question," he exclaimed. "Expectations is the place you must always go to before you get to where you're going. Of course, some people never go beyond Expectations, but my job is to hurry them along whether they like it or not."
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Norton Juster |
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aee906f
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I wonder where I am," said Milo in a very worried tone. "You're . . . in . . . the . . . Dol . . . drums," wailed a voice that sounded far away. He looked around quickly to see who had spoken. No one was there, and it was as quiet and still as one could imagine. "Yes . . . the . . . Dol . . . drums," yawned another voice, but still he saw no one. "WHAT ARE THE DOLDRUMS?" he cried loudly, and tried very hard to see who would answer this time..
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Norton Juster |
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e52c497
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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 |
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8c6049c
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Do all those words mean the same thing?" gasped Milo. "Of course." "Certainly." "Precisely." "Exactly." "Yes," they replied in order. "Well, then," said Milo, not understanding why each one said the same thing in a slightly different way, "wouldn't it be simpler to use just one? It would certainly make more sense." "Nonsense." "Ridiculous." "Fantastic." "Absurd." "Bosh," they chorused again, and continued. "We're not interested in making se..
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Norton Juster |
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a3bd2ff
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He punctuated this last thought with such a deep sigh that a house sparrow singing near by stopped and rushed home to be with his family.
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Norton Juster |
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9afd37a
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Can you spell everything?" asked Milo admiringly. "Just about," replied the bee with a hint of pride in his voice. "You see, years ago I was just an ordinary bee minding my own business, smelling flowers all day, and occasionally picking up part-time work in people's bonnets. Then one day I realized that I'd never amount to anything without an education and, being naturally adept at spelling, I decided that--"
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spelling
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Norton Juster |
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8b92453
|
Whatever we learn has a purpose and whatever we do affects everything and everyone else, if even in the tiniest way...for whenever you learn something new, the whole world becomes that much richer.
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Norton Juster |
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c980140
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as long as the answer is right, who cares if the question is wrong? If you want sense, you'll have to make it yourself.
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Norton Juster |
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ecc2aa0
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You'll find," he remarked gently, "that 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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02f4710
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changes are so frightening.
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Norton Juster |
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1520bc8
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Yes, indeed," they repeated together; "but if we'd told you then, you might not have gone--and as you've discovered, 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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764d350
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You see, it's really quite simple. A simile is just a mode of comparison employing 'as' and 'like' to reveal the hidden character or essence of whatever we want to describe, and through the use of fancy, association, contrast, extension, or imagination, to enlarge our understanding or perception of human experience and observation.
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Norton Juster |
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3d087b0
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You can get in a lot of trouble mixing up words or just not knowing how to spell them. If we ever get out of here, I'm going to make sure to learn all about them.
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knowledge
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Norton Juster |
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4a0453e
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Things which are equally bad are also equally good. Try to look at the bright side of things.
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Norton Juster |
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8b20469
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but it's not just learning things that's important. It's learning what to do with what you learn and learning why you learn things at all that matters.
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Norton Juster |
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718ae8c
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every time you decide something without having a good reason, you jump to Conclusions whether you like it or not.
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Norton Juster |
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1e0af6e
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Does everyone here grow the way you do?" puffed Milo when he had caught up. "Almost everyone," replied Alec, and then he stopped a moment and thought. "Now and then, though, some- one does begin to grow differently. Instead of down, his feet grow up toward the sky. But we do our best to dis- courage awkward things like that." "What happens to them?" insisted Milo. "Oddly enough, they often grow ten times the size of everyone else," said Ale..
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Norton Juster |
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e0861ab
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it's just as bad to live in a place where what you do see isn't there as it is to live in one where what you don't see is.
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reality
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Norton Juster |
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c2dfe68
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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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ee0ecb6
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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 keep you from what you really should be doing, and if it weren't for that dreadful magic staff, you'd never know how much time you were wasting.
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Norton Juster |
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438b095
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Oh, don't worry about that," said the Mathemagician as he scooped up the pieces. "We use the broken ones for fractions."
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Norton Juster |
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e4d955b
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Of course, if you've ever gotten a surprise package, you can imagine how puzzled and excited Milo was; and if you've never gotten one, pay close attention, because someday you might.
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Norton Juster |
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44f0c0b
|
There's nothing to it," they all said in chorus, "if you have a magic staff." Then six of them cancelled themselves out and simply disappeared. "But it's only a big pencil," the Humbug objected, tapping at it with his cane. "True enough," agreed the Mathemagician; "but once you learn to use it, there's no end to what you can do."
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Norton Juster |
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98d59ec
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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.
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Norton Juster |
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4b2d89b
|
1. Milo There was once a boy named Milo who didn't know what to do with himself--not just sometimes, but always. When he was in school he longed to be out, and when he was out he longed to be in. On the way he thought about coming home, and coming home he thought about going. Wherever he was he wished he were somewhere else, and when he got there he wondered why he'd bothered. Nothing really interested him--least of all the things that shou..
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Norton Juster |
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6681664
|
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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Norton Juster |
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b8451e7
|
And it's much the same thing with knowledge, for whenever you learn something new, the whole world becomes that much richer.
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Norton Juster |
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9f76b52
|
But that's just as bad," protested Milo. "You mean just as good," corrected the Humbug. "Things which are equally bad are also equally good. Try to look at the bright side of things." "I don't know which side of anything to look at," protested Milo. "Everything is so confusing and all your words only make things worse."
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Norton Juster |
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e3e5670
|
A slavish concern for the composition of words is the sign of a bankrupt intellect.
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Norton Juster |
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a96fcc6
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It is much better to look for what I may never find than to find what I do not really want.
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Norton Juster |