Quotes from Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

Robert C. O'Brien ·  240 pages

Rating: (149.2K votes)


“When you’ve lived in a cage, you can’t bear not to run, even if what you’re running towards is an illusion.”
― Robert C. O'Brien, quote from Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH


“There were two sets of encyclopedias that had sections on rats. From them we learned that we were about the most hated animals on earth, except maybe snakes and germs.
That seemed strange to us, and unjust. [...] But people think we spread diseases, and I suppose possibly we do, though never intentionally, and surely we never spread as many diseases as people themselves do.”
― Robert C. O'Brien, quote from Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH


“Still, it seemed to us that the main reason we were hated must be that we always lived by stealing. From the earliest times, rats lived around the edges of human cities and farms, stowed away on men's ships, gnawed holes in their floors and stole their food. Sometimes we were accused of biting human children; I didn't believe that, nor did any of us⎼unless it was some kind of a subnormal rat, bred in the worst of city slums. And that, of course, can happen to people, too.”
― Robert C. O'Brien, quote from Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH


“Word gets around." "You mean they communicate?" A third voice. "You bet they communicate. And the next time they do come, you can be sure they'll case the place carefully. We were lucky. These rats hadn't been bothered in years. They'd grown careless.”
― Robert C. O'Brien, quote from Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH


“The real point is this: We don't know where to go because we don't know what we are. Do you want to go back to living in a sewer-pipe? And eating other people's garbage? Because that's what rats do. But the fact is, we aren't rats anymore. We are something Dr. Schultz has made. Something new.”
― Robert C. O'Brien, quote from Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH



About the author

Robert C. O'Brien
Born place: in Brooklyn, New York, The United States
Born date January 11, 1918
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“Good always has a price, Marcus. Evil comes free.”
― Donato Carrisi, quote from The Lost Girls of Rome


“Wow." I hadn't thought Dimitri could be any cooler, but I was wrong. "You beat up your dad. I mean, that's really horrible...what happened. But, wow. You really are a god."
He blinked. "What?"
"Uh, nothing.”
― Richelle Mead, quote from Blutsschwestern


“She created the beast, and now she’d have to destroy him.”
― Chanda Hahn, quote from Forever


“De vez en cuando un milagro, oro y risas, y de nuevo la esperanza cuando crees que a tu alrededor todo es destrucción y silencio.”
― Philippe Claudel, quote from La petite fille de Monsieur Linh


“She had been innocent once, a little girl playing with feathers on the floor of a devil's lair. She wasn't innocent now, but she didn't know what to do about it. This was her life: magic and shame and secrets and teeth and a deep, nagging hollow at the center of herself where something was most certainly missing.”
― Laini Taylor, quote from Daughter of Smoke and Bone


Interesting books

Dreamland
(3.4K)
Dreamland
by Alyson Noel
The Willoughbys
(10.1K)
The Willoughbys
by Lois Lowry
Ida B. . . and Her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster, and (Possibly) Save the World
(21.4K)
Ida B. . . and Her P...
by Katherine Hannigan
The Normal Christian Life
(6.5K)
The Normal Christian...
by Watchman Nee
Clear and Present Danger
(113.3K)
Clear and Present Da...
by Tom Clancy
The Invisible Circus
(4.9K)
The Invisible Circus
by Jennifer Egan

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.