Quote

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

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Norton Juster
Age: 91 †
Born: 1929
Born: June 2
Died: 2021
Died: March 8
Architect
Author
Novelist
Writer
Brooklyn
New York
Never
Choose
Words
Use
Sense
Care
Mean
Long
Make
Nonsense

More quotes by Norton Juster

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...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
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If you want sense, you'll have to make it yourself.
Norton Juster
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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
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There are good books and there are bad books, period, that's the distinction.
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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.
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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
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You can swim all day in the Sea of Knowledge and not get wet.
Norton Juster
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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
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He paused again as a tear of longing rolled from cheek to lip with the sweet-salty taste of an old memory.
Norton Juster
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But I suppose there's a lot to see everywhere, if only you keep your eyes open.
Norton Juster
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Just because you have a choice, it doesn't mean that any of them 'has' to be right.
Norton Juster
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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
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Perhaps someday you can have one city as easy to see as Illusions and as hard to forget as Reality.
Norton Juster
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Have you ever heard a blindfolded octopus unwrap a cellophane-covered bathtub?
Norton Juster
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AHA! interrupted Officer Shrift, making another note in his little book. Just as I thought: boys are the cause of everything.
Norton Juster
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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
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I am the Terrible Trivium, demon of petty tasks and worthless jobs, ogre of wasted effort, and monster of habit.
Norton Juster
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What you can do is often simply a matter of what you will do.
Norton Juster
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Many of the things which can never be, often are.
Norton Juster
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I write best in the morning, and I can only write for about half a day, that's about it.
Norton Juster