Phantom Tollbooth Quotes:

The way you see things depends a great deal on where you look at them from.

- Norton Juster

source: Norton Juster (2011). “The Phantom Tollbooth”, p.96, Knopf Books for Young Readers

topic: Way, Looks, Deals, Phantom Tollbooth

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. Whenever you laugh, gladness spreads like the ripples in the pond; and whenever you're sad, no one anywhere can be really happy. And it's much the same thing with knowledge, for whenever you learn something new, the whole world becomes that much richer.

- Norton Juster

topic: Moving, Fall, Dust, Phantom Tollbooth, Specks

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.

- Norton Juster

topic: Princess, May, Way, 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.

- Norton Juster

topic: Inspirational, Mistake, Long, Children's Books, Wrong Reasons

So many things are possible just as long as you don't know they're impossible.

- Norton Juster

source: The Phantom Tollbooth (p. 247)

topic: Optimistic, Long, Impossible, Phantom Tollbooth

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

- Norton Juster

topic: Trying, Sides, Looks, Bright Side, Phantom Tollbooth

...it's not just learning that's important. It's learning what to do with what you learn and learning why you learn things that matters.

- Norton Juster

source: Norton Juster (2011). “The Phantom Tollbooth”, p.190, Knopf Books for Young Readers

topic: Education, School, Important, Phantom Tollbooth

You can swim all day in the Sea of Knowledge and not get wet.

- Norton Juster

topic: Sea, Swim, Knowledge And Ignorance, Motivational Swimming, Phantom Tollbooth

...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.

- Norton Juster

topic: Mean, Trying, Infinity, Phantom Tollbooth

What you learn today, for no reason at all, will help you discover all the wonderful secrets of tomorrow.

- Norton Juster

source: Norton Juster (2011). “The Phantom Tollbooth”, p.190, Knopf Books for Young Readers

topic: Secret, Today, Tomorrow, Phantom Tollbooth

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

- Norton Juster

topic: Want, Phantom Tollbooth

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.

- Norton Juster

topic: Time, Giving, Needs, Phantom Tollbooth, Time Of Your Life

Since you got here by not thinking, it seems reasonable to expect that, in order to get out, you must start thinking.

- Norton Juster

source: Norton Juster (2011). “The Phantom Tollbooth 50th Anniversary Edition”, p.31, Knopf Books for Young Readers

topic: Thinking, Order, Phantom Tollbooth

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.

- Norton Juster

source: Norton Juster (2011). “The Phantom Tollbooth”, p.103, Knopf Books for Young Readers

topic: Travel, Philosophy, Journey, My Journey, Phantom Tollbooth

...I'll continue to see things as a child. It's not so far to fall.

- Norton Juster

topic: Children, Fall, Phantom Tollbooth

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.

- Norton Juster

topic: Years, Way, Return, Lost Years, Phantom Tollbooth

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.

- Norton Juster

topic: Sweet, Princess, Sight, Phantom Tollbooth

Infinity is a dreadfully poor place. They can never manage to make ends meet.

- Norton Juster

topic: Infinity, Poor, Ends, Phantom Tollbooth

What you can do is often simply a matter of what you will do.

- Norton Juster

source: Norton Juster (2011). “The Phantom Tollbooth”, p.200, Knopf Books for Young Readers

topic: Matter, Phantom Tollbooth

A slavish concern for the composition of words is the sign of a bankrupt intellect. Be gone, odious wasp! You smell of decayed syllables.

- Norton Juster

topic: Smell, Gone, Wasps, Phantom Tollbooth

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, you know, and all very beautiful if you listen carefully.

- Norton Juster

source: "The Phantom Tollbooth". Book by Norton Juster, www.theguardian.com. 1961.

topic: Beautiful, Country, Night, Country Roads, Phantom Tollbooth

Expectations is the place you must always go to before you get to where you're going.

- Norton Juster

topic: Expectations, Phantom Tollbooth

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

- Norton Juster

source: Norton Juster (2011). “The Phantom Tollbooth”, p.164, Knopf Books for Young Readers

topic: Effort, Phantom Tollbooth

There is much worth noticing that often escapes the eye.

- Norton Juster

topic: Eye, Noticing, Phantom Tollbooth

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

- Norton Juster

topic: Silence, Use, Sound, Phantom Tollbooth, Proper Time

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 that I've been here hundreds of times.

- Norton Juster

topic: Simple, Way, You Like It, Phantom Tollbooth

I received a grant from The Ford Foundation to write a book for kids about urban perception, or how people experience cities, but I kept putting off writing it. Instead I started to write what became The Phantom Tollbooth

- Norton Juster

topic: Book, Writing, Kids, Phantom Tollbooth

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 even bothered.

- Norton Juster

topic: Home, School, Way, Phantom Tollbooth

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.

- Norton Juster

topic: Mean, Bird, Effort, Phantom Tollbooth

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?

- Norton Juster

topic: Rain, Thinking, Wrong Road, Phantom Tollbooth, Right Road

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.

- Norton Juster

topic: Inspirational, Mistake, Princess, Phantom Tollbooth

Why not? That's a good reason for almost anything - a bit used perhaps, but still quite serviceable.

- Norton Juster

source: Norton Juster (2011). “The Phantom Tollbooth”, p.42, Knopf Books for Young Readers

topic: Why Not, Reason, Used, Phantom Tollbooth

Expect everything, I always say, and the unexpected never happens.

- Norton Juster

source: Norton Juster (2011). “The Phantom Tollbooth 50th Anniversary Edition”, p.20, Knopf Books for Young Readers

topic: Philosophy, Unexpected, Phantom Tollbooth

Many of the things which can never be, often are.

- Norton Juster

topic: Phantom Tollbooth

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.

- Norton Juster

topic: Life, Real, Eye, Imaginary Things, Phantom Tollbooth

It's bad enough wasting time without killing it.

- Norton Juster

topic: Wasting Time, Killing, Enough, Killing It, Phantom Tollbooth

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

- Norton Juster

source: Norton Juster (2011). “The Phantom Tollbooth”, p.115, Knopf Books for Young Readers

topic: Octopus, Heard, Covered, Phantom Tollbooth, Bathtubs

I always hated those fantasy books where, at the end, all the kids had to go home. At the end of a Narnia book, you always got shown the door. Same with The Wizard Of Oz and The Phantom Tollbooth. You get kicked out of your magic land. It's like, "By the way, here's your next surprise: You get to go home!" And the kids are all like, "Yay, we get to go home!" I never bought that. Did anybody buy that?

- Lev Grossman

topic: Book, Home, Kids, Yay, Phantom Tollbooth

I loved fantasy, but I particularly loved the stories in which somebody got out of where they were and into somewhere better - as in the Chronicles Of Narnia, The Wizard Of Oz, The Phantom Tollbooth, the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon.

- Lev Grossman

source: Interview with Jason Heller, www.avclub.com. August 26, 2009.

topic: Dragons, Cartoon, Dungeons, Phantom Tollbooth, Chronicles