Quotes from The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane

Open your heart. Someone will come. Someone will come for you. But first you must open your heart.

"Once there was a princess who was very beautiful. She shone bright as the stars on a moonless night. But what difference did it make that she was beautiful? None. No difference."
"Why did it make no difference?" asked Abilene.
"Because," said Pellegrina, "She was a princess who loved no one and cared nothing for love, even though there were many who loved her."

"Perhaps," said the man, "you would like to be lost with us. I have found it much more agreeable to be lost in the company of others."

I have been loved, Edward told the stars. So? said the stars. What difference does that make when you are all alone now?

Look at me, he said to her. His arms and legs jerked. Look at me. You got your wish. I have learned how to love. And it's a terrible thing. I'm broken. My heart is broken. Help me. The old woman turned and hobbled away. Come back, thought Edward. Fix me.

The world is dark, and light is precious.
Come closer, dear reader.
You must trust me.
I am telling you a story.

There ain't no way you can hold onto something that wants to go, you understand? You can only love what you got while you got it.

There is nothing sweeter in this sad world than the sound of someone you love calling your name.

How will the world change if we do not question it?

You can't always judge people by the things they done. You got to judge them by what they are doing now.

"Once upon a time," he said out loud to the darkness. He said these words because they were the best, the most powerful words that he knew and just the saying of them comforted him.

Love, as we have already discussed, is a powerful, wonderful, ridiculous thing, capable of moving mountains.

This is the danger of loving: No matter how powerful you are, no matter how many kingdoms you rule, you cannot stop those you love from dying.

But, reader, there is no comfort in the word "farewell", even if you say it in French. "Farewell" is a word that, in any language, is full of sorrow. It is a word that promises absolutely nothing.

Stories are light. Light is precious in a world so dark.

It is a bad thing to have love and nowhere to put it.

Say it, reader. Say the word "quest" out loud. It is an extraordinary word, isn't it? So small and yet so full of wonder, so full of hope.

Nothing would be easier without you, because you are everything, all of it- sprinkles, quarks, giant donuts, eggs sunny-side up- you are the ever-expanding universe to me.

Reader, do you think it is a terrible thing to hope when there is really no reason to hope at all? Or is it (as the soldier said about happiness) something that you might just as well do, since, in the end, it really makes no difference to anyone but you?

Magic is always impossible.... It begins with the impossible and ends with the impossible and is impossible in between. That is why it's magic.

Despereaux marveled at his own bravery.
He admired his own defiance.
And then, reader, he fainted.

Reading should not be presented to children as a chore, a duty. It should be offered as a gift.

A true hero isn't measured by the size of his strength, but by the strength of his heart.

It is only with the heart that one can see rightly;
what is essential is invisible to the eye.

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass. It's about learning to dance in the rain.

Nothing's gonna save our lifes, so... we're breathing borrowed air.

"Oh yes, time flies and before you know it you're old," said Pippi. "Come autumn I'll be ten, and I suppose I'll be past my prime then."

"But nightshirts aren't dangerous," Pippi assured her. "They don't bite anybody except in self defense."

People say "nothing is impossible", but I do nothing every day.

I always get to where I'm going by walking away from where I've been.

The Rainbow Fish shared his scales left and right. And the more he gave away, the more delighted he became.

Give a glittering scale to each one of the other fish. You'll no longer be the most beautiful fish in the sea but you'll discover how to be happy!

The beginning is always dark.

Human passions have mysterious ways, in children as well as grown-ups. Those affected by them can’t explain them, and those who haven’t known them have no understanding of them at all.

Once there was a boy. He was, let us say, something like fourteen years old; long and loose jointed and towheaded. He wasn't good for much, that boy. His chief delight was to eat and sleep, and after that he liked best to make mischief.

One Sunday morning the warm sun came up and - pop! - out of the egg came a tiny and very hungry caterpillar.

He built a small house, called a cocoon, around himself. He stayed inside for more than two weeks. Then he nibbled a hole in the cocoon, pushed his way out and...
he was a beautiful butterfly!

And the wild things roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth and rolled their terrible eyes and showed their terrible claws.

Happiness is not always the best way to be happy.

I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues.

I am the Lorax, and I'll yell and I'll shout for the fine things on earth that are on their way out!

You ought to be thankful a hole heaping lot,
for The places and people you're lucky you're not!

When you think things are bad,
when you feel sour and blue,
when you start to get mad...
you should do what I do!
Just tell yourself, Duckie,
you're really quite lucky!
Some people are much more...
oh, ever so much more...
oh, muchly much-much more
unlucky than you!

So, open your mouth, lad! For every voice counts!

A person's a person, no matter how small.

Never do anything by halves if you want to get away with it. Be outrageous. Go the whole hog. Make sure everything you do is so completely crazy it's unbelievable.

It's a funny thing about mothers and fathers. Even when their own child is the most disgusting little blister you could ever imagine, they still think that he or she is wonderful.

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.
You're on your own.
And you know what you know.
And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go...

Step with care and great tact
And remember that Life's a Great Balancing Act
Just never forget to be dexterous and deft
And never mix up your right foot with your left.