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

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
Seems
Must
Thinking
Reasonable
Expect
Since
Start
Order

More quotes by Norton Juster

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They all looked very much like the residents of any small valley to which you've never been.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Everybody is so terribly sensitive about the things they know best.
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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.
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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.
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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
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Freedom is not a license for chaos.
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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.
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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.
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Expect everything, I always say, and the unexpected never happens.
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There are no wrong roads to anywhere.
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Infinity is a dreadfully poor place. They can never manage to make ends meet.
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Have you ever heard a blindfolded octopus unwrap a cellophane-covered bathtub?
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Expectations is the place you must always go to before you get to where you're going.
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.
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What you learn today, for no reason at all, will help you discover all the wonderful secrets of tomorrow.
Norton Juster
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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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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