Quote

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

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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
Anything
Realized
Smelling
Without
Flower
Adept
Work
Decided
Spelling
Years
Ordinary
Picking
Never
Amount
Bees
Time
Education
Occasionally
People
Business
Naturally
Bonnets
Part
Flowers
Minding

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But I suppose there's a lot to see everywhere, if only you keep your eyes open.
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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.
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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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Have you ever heard a blindfolded octopus unwrap a cellophane-covered bathtub?
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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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...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.
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What you can do is often simply a matter of what you will do.
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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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Infinity is a dreadfully poor place. They can never manage to make ends meet.
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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.
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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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Expect everything, I always say, and the unexpected never happens.
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It's bad enough wasting time without killing it.
Norton Juster
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The way you see things depends a great deal on where you look at them from.
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The only thing you can do easily is be wrong, and that's hardly worth the effort.
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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Just because you have a choice, it doesn't mean that any of them 'has' to be right.
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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.
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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
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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.
Norton Juster