Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth Quotes

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.

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.

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

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

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

Expect everything so that nothing comes unexpected.

...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.

AHA!" interrupted Officer Shrift, making another note in his little book. "Just as I thought: boys are the cause of everything.

And some looked even more like each other than they did like themselves.

He paused again as a tear of longing rolled from cheek to lip with the sweet-salty taste of an old memory.

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.

...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.

You weren't thinking and you weren't paying attention either. People who don't pay attention often get stuck in the Doldrums.

Is everyone who lives in Ignorance like you?" asked Milo."Much worse, " he said longingly. "But I don't live here. I'm from a place very far away called Context.

...mirages are things that aren't really there that you can see very clearly.""How do you see something that isn't there?"..."sometimes it's much simpler than seeing things that are"...

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

Rhyme and reason answer all problems

So each one of you agrees to disagree with whatever the other one agrees with, but if you both disagree with the same thing, aren't you really in agreement?

I cannot take your sense of humor--and, with it, you've nothing to fear from me.

For always remember that while it is wrong to use too few, it is often far worse to use too many." - Which Macabre

You had the courage to try and what you can do is often simply a matter of what you will do.

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.

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