94+ Norton Juster Quotes On Education, Justice And Line

Norton Juster was an American architect, author, and illustrator best known for his children's book The Phantom Tollbooth. He wrote the book in 1961, which has become a classic of children's literature and has been translated into more than twenty languages. Juster also wrote the children's book The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics, which was made into an animated short film by Chuck Jones. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Norton Juster on education, justice, love.

Top 10 Norton Juster Quotes

1. 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.
2. So many things are possible just as long as you don't know they're impossible.
3. You must never feel badly about making mistakes.
4. The only thing you can do easily is be wrong, and that's hardly worth the effort.
5. Expect everything, I always say, and the unexpected never happens.
6. 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.
7. Have you ever heard a blindfolded octopus unwrap a cellophane-covered bathtub?
8. A slavish concern for the composition of words is the sign of a bankrupt intellect. Be gone, odious wasp! You smell of decayed syllables.
9. Since you got here by not thinking, it seems reasonable to expect that, in order to get out, you must start thinking.
10. What you can do is often simply a matter of what you will do.

Norton Juster Short Quotes

• Freedom is not a license for chaos.
• Infinity is a dreadfully poor place. They can never manage to make ends meet.
• There is much worth noticing that often escapes the eye.
• Expectations is the place you must always go to before you get to where you're going.
• You can swim all day in the Sea of Knowledge and not get wet.
• The way you see things depends a great deal on where you look at them from.
• But just because you can never reach it, doesn’t mean that it’s not worth looking for.
• Many of the things which can never be, often are.
• If you want sense, you'll have to make it yourself.
• ...I'll continue to see things as a child. It's not so far to fall.

Norton Juster Quotes About Learn

And it's much the same thing with knowledge, for whenever you learn something new, the whole world becomes that much richer. — Norton Juster

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

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

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. — Norton Juster

I think kids slowly begin to realize that what they're learning relates to other things they know. Then learning starts to get more and more exciting — Norton Juster

When you're very young and you learn something - a fact, a piece of information, whatever - it doesn't connect to anything. — Norton Juster

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. — Norton Juster

Norton Juster Quotes About Reason

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

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

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 can do is often simply a matter of what you will do. — Norton Juster

Ah, this is fine," he cried triumphantly, holding up a small medallion on a chain. He dusted it off, and engraved on one side were the words "WHY NOT?" "That's a good reason for almost anything - a bit used perhaps, but still quite serviceable. — Norton Juster

Norton Juster Quotes About Read

I think really good books can be read by anybody. — Norton Juster

A good book written for children can be read by adults. — Norton Juster

One of the problems you have when you read with kids is that once they like something they want you to read it a hundred times. — Norton Juster

I remember when I was a kid in school and teachers would explain things to me about what I read, and I'd think, Where did they get that? I didn't read that in there. Later you look at it and think, That's kind of an interesting idea — Norton Juster

Norton Juster Quotes About Books

There are good books and there are bad books, period, that's the distinction. — Norton Juster

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

And when I'm writing, I write a lot anyway. I might write pages and pages of conversation between characters that don't necessarily end up in the book, or in the story I'm working on, because they're simply my way of getting to know the characters — Norton Juster

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

The only other thing which I think is important is: Don't write a book or start a book with the expectation of communicating a message in a very important way. — Norton Juster

And now," he continued, speaking to Milo, "where were you on the night of July 27?" "What does that have to do with it?" asked Milo. "It's my birthday, that's what," said the policeman as he entered "Forgot my birthday" in his little book. "Boys always forget other people's birthdays. — Norton Juster

Norton Juster Famous Quotes And Sayings

Every sunrise gives you a new beginning and a new ending. Let this morning be a new beginning to a better relationship and a new ending to the bad memories. Its an opportunity to enjoy life, breathe freely, think and love. Be grateful for this beautiful day. — Norton Juster

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. — Norton Juster

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

I am the Terrible Trivium, demon of petty tasks and worthless jobs, ogre of wasted effort, and monster of habit. — Norton Juster

...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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It's bad enough wasting time without killing it. — Norton Juster

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

Sometimes I find the best way of getting from one place to another is simply to erase everything and begin again. — Norton Juster

Everybody is so terribly sensitive about the things they know best. — Norton Juster

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

You see. . . it's really quite strenuous doing nothing all day, so once a week we take a holiday and go nowhere, which was just where we were going when you came along. Would you care to join us? — Norton Juster

For instance," said the boy again, "if Christmas trees were people and people were Christmas trees, we'd all be chopped down, put up in the living room, and covered in tinsel, while the trees opened our presents." "What does that have to do with it?" asked Milo. "Nothing at all," he answered, "but it's an interesting possibility, don't you think? — Norton Juster

Would it be possible for me to see something from up there? asked Milo politely. You could, said Alec, but only if you try very hard to look at things as an adult does. Milo tried as hard as he could, and, as he did, his feet floated slowly off the ground until he was standing in the air next to Alex Bings. He looked around very quickly and, an instant later, crashed back down to the earth again. Interesting, wasn't it? asked Alex. Yes, it was, agreed Milo, rubbing his head and dusting himself off, but I think I'll continue to see things as a child. It's not so far to fall. — Norton Juster

Just as I thought: boys are the cause of everything. — Norton Juster

Where is the sound?" someone hastily scribbled on the blackboard, and they all waited anxiously for the reply. Milo caught his breath, picked up the chalk, and explained simply, "It's on the tip of my tongue. — Norton Juster

Perhaps you'd care for a synonym bun," suggested the duke. — Norton Juster

The Mathemagician nodded knowingly and stroked his chin several times. “You’ll find,” he remarked gently, “that the only thing you can do easily is be wrong, and that’s hardly worth the effort. — Norton Juster

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— — Norton Juster

Why, did you know that if a beaver two feet long with a tail a foot and a half long can build a dam twelve feet high and six feet wide in two days, all you would need to build Boulder Dam is a beaver sixty-eight feet long with a fifty-one-foot tail?" "Where would you find a beaver that big?" grumbled the Humbug as his pencil point snapped. "I'm sure I don't know," he replied, "but if you did, you'd certainly know what to do with him. — Norton Juster

Perhaps someday you can have one city as easy to see as Illusions and as hard to forget as Reality. — Norton Juster

Why, can you imagine what would happen if we named all the twos Henry or George or Robert or John or lots of other things? You'd have to say Robert plus John equals four, and if the four's name were Albert, things would be hopeless. — Norton Juster

I know one thing for certain; it is much harder to tell whether you are lost than whether you were lost, for, on many occasions, where you are going is exactly where you are. On the other hand, if you often find that where you've been is not at all where you should have gone, and, since it's much more difficult to find your way back from someplace you've never left, I suggest you go there immediately and then decide. — Norton Juster

And that's why people no longer care which words they use as long as they use lots of them. — Norton Juster

... for one of the nicest things about mathematics, or anything else you might care to learn, is that many of the things which can never be, often are. You see 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. — Norton Juster

Just because you have a choice, it doesn't mean that any of them 'has' to be right. — Norton Juster

There are no wrong roads to anywhere. — Norton Juster

They all looked very much like the residents of any small valley to which you've never been. — Norton Juster

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. — Norton Juster

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. — Norton Juster

In this box are all the words I know… 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 with these words. With them there is no obstacle you cannot overcome. All you must learn to do is use them well and in the right places. — Norton Juster

People always ask about my influences, and they cite a bunch of people I've never heard of. — Norton Juster

To a child, and to an adult, too, what you discover by yourself, or what you think you discover by yourself, is what stays. — Norton Juster

Do you think it will rain? Milo: But I thought you were the Weather Man? No, I'm the Whether man, for it is more important to know whether there will be weather, whether than what the weather will be. — Norton Juster

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

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 a 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

Expect everything so that nothing comes unexpected. — Norton Juster

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

But I find the best things I do, I do when I'm trying to avoid doing something else I'm supposed to be doing. You know, you're working on something. You get bugged, or you lose your enthusiasm or something. So you turn to something else with an absolute vengeance — Norton Juster

We're right here on this very spot. 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. — Norton Juster

...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. — Norton Juster

But I suppose there's a lot to see everywhere, if only you keep your eyes open. — Norton Juster

I write best in the morning, and I can only write for about half a day, that's about it. — Norton Juster

You see, to tall men I'm a midget, and to short men I'm a giant; to the skinny ones I'm a fat man, and to the fat ones I'm a thin man. — Norton Juster

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. — Norton Juster

Oh dear, all those words again," thought Milo as he climbed into the wagon with Tock and the cabinet members. "How are you going to make it move? It doesn't have a--" "Be very quiet," advised the duke, "for it goes without saying. — Norton Juster

I never knew words could be so confusing," Milo said to Tock as he bent down to scratch the dog's ear. "Only when you use a lot to say a little," answered Tock. Milo thought this was quite the wisest thing he'd heard all day. — Norton Juster

The Mathemagician nodded knowingly and stroked his chin several times. — Norton Juster

Life Lessons by Norton Juster

1. Norton Juster's work emphasizes the importance of imagination, creativity, and curiosity in life. He encourages readers to explore the world around them and to think outside the box in order to find new solutions to problems.
2. Juster's stories also remind us to appreciate the small moments in life and to take time to enjoy the beauty of the world around us. He encourages readers to find joy in the everyday and to make the most of their lives.
3. Finally, Juster's stories emphasize the power of friendship and the importance of looking out for one another. His characters demonstrate that even the most unlikely friendships can be strong and meaningful.