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e560071
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but you had the courage to try; and what you can do is often simply a matter of what you will do.
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Norton Juster |
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1b23feb
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I)t's not just learning things that's important. It's learning what you do with what you learn and learning why you learn things at all that matters.... 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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be0208e
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No one paid any attention to how things looked, and as they moved faster and faster everything grew uglier and dirtier, and as everything grew uglier and dirtier they moved faster and faster, and at last a very strange thing began to happen. Because nobody cared, the city slowly began to disappear. Day by day the buildings grew fainter and fainter, and the streets faded away, until at last it was entirely invisible. There was nothing to see..
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Norton Juster |
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d8cfc19
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From 2:30 to 3:30 we put off for tomorrow what we could have done today.
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Norton Juster |
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70d826b
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WHY NOT?
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Norton Juster |
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f60081d
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You see," he continued, beginning to feel better, "once there was no time at all, and people found it very inconvenient. They never knew whether they were eating lunch or dinner, and they were always missing trains. So time was invented to help them keep track of the day and get places when they should. When they began to count all the time that was available, what with 60 seconds in a minute and 60 minutes in an hour and 24 hours in a day ..
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Norton Juster |
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7078ed4
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My goodness," thought Milo, "everybody is so terribly sensitive about the things they know best."
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Norton Juster |
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7fc52e4
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Rhyme and reason answer all problems
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problems
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Norton Juster |
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aff3bd9
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I didn't know that I was going to have to eat my own words: - Milo
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eat-words
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Norton Juster |
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3c489ad
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I wouldn't eat too many of those [half-baked ideas] if I were you. They may look good, but you can get terribly sick of them." -Tock"
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ideas
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Norton Juster |
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7c10356
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You certainly must be very old to have reached the ground already." "Oh no," said Milo seriously. "In my family we all start on the ground and grow up, and we never know how far until we actually get there." "What a silly system." The boy laughed. "Then your head keeps changing its height and you always see things in a different way? Why, when you're fifteen things won't look at all the way they did when you were ten, and at twenty every..
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Norton Juster |
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6694520
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You wouldn't like it much anyway," someone replied gently. "Infinity is a dreadfully poor place. They can never manage to make ends meet."
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Norton Juster |
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5898102
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quite
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Norton Juster |
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29fd425
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Don't worry," Milo replied; "I'll just wrap one up for later," and he folded his napkin around "EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR THE BEST."
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Norton Juster |
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9da6b1b
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I didn't know that I was going to have to eat my own words,' objected Milo. 'Of course, of course, everyone here does,' the king grunted. 'You should have made a tastier speech.
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Norton Juster |
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372820a
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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." "But th..
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Norton Juster |
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a8d16f8
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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. Then, with a last word of encouragement, he and the Dodecahedron (who was simultaneously sobbing, frowning, pining, and sighing from four of his saddest faces) made their farewells and watched as the three tiny figures disappeared into the forbiddin..
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Norton Juster |
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54b09c4
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shoulder, so lightly that he hardly noticed, was a small creature exactly the color of his shirt. "Allow me to introduce all of us," the creature went on. "We are the Lethargarians, at your service." Milo looked around and, for the first time, noticed dozens of them--sitting on the car, standing in the road, and lying all over the trees and bushes. They were very difficult to see, because whatever they happened to be sitting on or near was ..
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Norton Juster |
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ffb965e
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the front seat with his alarm again ringing furiously. "Are you all right?" shouted Milo. "Umphh," grunted Tock. "Sorry to get carried away, but I think you get the point." As they drove along, Tock continued to explain the importance of time, quoting the old philosophers and poets and illustrating each point with gestures that brought him perilously close to tumbling headlong from the speeding automobile."
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Norton Juster |
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7d3a526
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You see," continued the minister, bowing thankfully to the duke, "Dictionopolis is the place where all the words in the world come from. They're grown right here in our orchards." "I didn't know that words grew on trees," said Milo timidly. "Where did you think they grew?" shouted the earl irritably. A small crowd began to gather to see the little boy who didn't know that letters grew on trees. "I didn't know they grew at all," admitted Mil..
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Norton Juster |
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329829f
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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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09ea488
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and, most of all, of how much could be accomplished with just a little thought.
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Norton Juster |
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f24be8a
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You see," he went on, "it's very much like your trying to reach Infinity. You know that it's there, but 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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Norton Juster |
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e226456
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it seemed a great wonder that the world, which was so large, could sometimes feel so small and empty.
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Norton Juster |
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f2f5623
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Alec drew a fine telescope from his shirt and handed it to Milo. "Carry this with you on your journey," he said softly, "for there is much worth noticing that often escapes the eye. Through it you can see everything from the tender moss in a sidewalk crack to the glow of the farthest star--and, most important of all, you can see things as they really are, not just as they seem to be. It's my gift to you."
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Norton Juster |
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46a8995
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You had the courage to try; and what you can do is often simply a matter of what you will do.
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courage
inspiration
will
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Norton Juster |
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7c0da82
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For instance, 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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Norton Juster |
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7273fca
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I call myself seven or eight times a day just to see how I am.' 'How are you?' he asked politely. 'Not very well, I'm afraid.
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Norton Juster |
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646b513
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You're on the Island of Conclusions. Make yourself at home. You're apt to be here for some time.' 'But how did we get here?' asked Milo, who was still a bit puzzled by being there at all. 'You jumped, of course.' explained Canby. 'That's the way most everyone gets here. It's really quite simple: every time you decide something without having a good reason, you jump to Conclusions whether you like it or not. It's such an easy trip to make th..
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Norton Juster |
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6f83eca
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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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361d82e
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Every time he thought about it he became more convinced that there was nothing that was really true and even less in which to believe. So it was simpler not to care about anything, for in that way he was never disappointed.
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disappointment
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Norton Juster |
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8f216e9
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A wise man's words are rarely questioned," he counselled gently. "Therefore you must be very careful whom you call wise."
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trust
wise
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Norton Juster |
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546e6f3
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For two days and nights and half another day again he walked - through lonely forests and down along the rushing mountain streams that seemed to know their destination far better than he knew his.
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Norton Juster |
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0036ac6
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Well, almost nothing, or depending on your generosity of spirit, hardly anything, for he could hitch an ox and plough a furrow straight or thatch a roof or hone his scythe until the edge was bright and sharp or tell by a sniff of the breeze what the day would bring or with a glance when a grape was sweet and ready.
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Norton Juster |
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d399caf
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When he had repeated them often enough, they became a decision.
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Norton Juster |
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3a44a89
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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 should have.
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Norton Juster |
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fcbf5df
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And you are almost never right about anything,' he said, pointing at the Humbug. 'and, when you are, it's usually an accident.
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Norton Juster |
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afc29f2
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T)he 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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1e53e2e
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I)t'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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Norton Juster |
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d13597e
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I)t's not just learning things that's important. It's learning what you 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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9eab779
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That was all many years ago," she continued; "but they never appointed a new Which, and that explains why today people use as many words as they can and think themselves very wise for doing so. For always remember that while it is wrong to use too few, it is often far worse to use too many."
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Norton Juster |
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7741ca3
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Milo nibbled carefully at the letter and discovered that it was quite sweet and delicious -- just the way you'd expect an A to taste. "I knew you'd like it," laughed the letter man, popping two G's and an R into his mouth and letting the juice drip down his chin. "A's are one of our most popular letters. All of them aren't that good," he confided in a low voice. "Take the Z, for instance -- very dry and sawdusty. And the X? Why, it tastes l..
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Norton Juster |
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fb4733a
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In this box are all the words I know,' he said. '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 from these words. With them, there is no obstacle you cannot overcome. All you must learn to do is use them well and in the righ..
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Norton Juster |