“Most of us are called on to perform tasks far beyond what we can do. Our capabilities seldom match our aspirations, and we are often woefully unprepared. To this extent, we are all Assistant Pig-Keepers at heart.”
― Lloyd Alexander, quote from The Book of Three
“Neither refuse to give help when it is needed,... nor refuse to accept it when it is offered.”
― Lloyd Alexander, quote from The Book of Three
“In some cases we learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself.”
― Lloyd Alexander, quote from The Book of Three
“By all means," cried the bard, his eyes lighting up. "A Fflam to the rescue! Storm the castle! Carry it by assault! Batter down the gates!"
"There's not much of it left to storm," said Eilonwy.
"Oh?" said Fflewddur, with disappointment. "Very well, we shall do the best we can.”
― Lloyd Alexander, quote from The Book of Three
“I'm trying to make myself invisible."
"That's an odd thing to attempt.”
― Lloyd Alexander, quote from The Book of Three
“I can't make sense out of that girl," he said to the bard, "Can you?"
"Never mind," Fflewddur said, "We aren't really expected to.”
― Lloyd Alexander, quote from The Book of Three
“You know how chickens are, imagining the world coming to an end one moment, then pecking corn the next.”
― Lloyd Alexander, quote from The Book of Three
“Are you slow-witted? I'm so sorry for you. It's terrible to be dull and stupid.”
― Lloyd Alexander, quote from The Book of Three
“I can't stand people who say 'I told you so.' That's worse than somebody coming up and eating your dinner before you have a chance to sit down.”
― Lloyd Alexander, quote from The Book of Three
“No, no," said Taran slowly, "It would be folly to think of attacking them." He smiled quickly at Fflewddur. "The bards would sing of us," he admitted, "but we'd be in no position to appreciate it.”
― Lloyd Alexander, quote from The Book of Three
“I have never known courage to be judged by the length of a man's hair. Or, for the matter of that, whether he has any hair at all.”
― Lloyd Alexander, quote from The Book of Three
“Do you not believe that animals know grief and fear and pain? The world of men is not an easy one for them.”
― Lloyd Alexander, quote from The Book of Three
“She was the most confusing person he had ever met”
― Lloyd Alexander, quote from The Book of Three
“Gwydion stood as a wolf at bay, his green eyes glittering, his teeth bared.”
― Lloyd Alexander, quote from The Book of Three
“we learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself.”
― Lloyd Alexander, quote from The Book of Three
“I know it isn't nice to vex people on purpose—it's like handing them a toad—but this is much too good to miss and I may never have another chance at it.”
― Lloyd Alexander, quote from The Book of Three
“Surely you can entrust your task to your friends."
"No," said Taran, after a long pause, "I have taken it on myself through my own choice."
"If that is so," answered Medwyn, "then you can give it up through your own choice.”
― Lloyd Alexander, quote from The Book of Three
“It would be a shame if you were killed. I should be very sorry. I know I wouldn't like it to happen to me.”
― Lloyd Alexander, quote from The Book of Three
“I knew something was wrong when you started being so polite.”
― Lloyd Alexander, quote from The Book of Three
Lloyd Alexander
Born place: in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, The United States
Born date January 30, 1924
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“My love is unique an none can rival her. Just by passing, she has already stolen away my heart.”
― Michelle Moran, quote from Nefertiti
“FAUSTUS. Ah, Faustus,
Now hast thou but one bare hour to live,
And then thou must be damn'd perpetually!
Stand still, you ever-moving spheres of heaven,
That time may cease, and midnight never come;
Fair Nature's eye, rise, rise again, and make
Perpetual day; or let this hour be but
A year, a month, a week, a natural day,
That Faustus may repent and save his soul!
O lente,172 lente currite, noctis equi!
The stars move still, time runs, the clock will strike,
The devil will come, and Faustus must be damn'd.
O, I'll leap up to my God!—Who pulls me down?—
See, see, where Christ's blood streams in the firmament!
One drop would save my soul, half a drop: ah, my Christ!—
Ah, rend not my heart for naming of my Christ!
Yet will I call on him: O, spare me, Lucifer!—
Where is it now? 'tis gone: and see, where God
Stretcheth out his arm, and bends his ireful brows!
Mountains and hills, come, come, and fall on me,
And hide me from the heavy wrath of God!
No, no!
Then will I headlong run into the earth:
Earth, gape! O, no, it will not harbour me!
You stars that reign'd at my nativity,
Whose influence hath allotted death and hell,
Now draw up Faustus, like a foggy mist.
Into the entrails of yon labouring cloud[s],
That, when you173 vomit forth into the air,
My limbs may issue from your smoky mouths,
So that my soul may but ascend to heaven!
[The clock strikes the half-hour.]
Ah, half the hour is past! 'twill all be past anon
O God,
If thou wilt not have mercy on my soul,
Yet for Christ's sake, whose blood hath ransom'd me,
Impose some end to my incessant pain;
Let Faustus live in hell a thousand years,
A hundred thousand, and at last be sav'd!
O, no end is limited to damned souls!
Why wert thou not a creature wanting soul?
Or why is this immortal that thou hast?
Ah, Pythagoras' metempsychosis, were that true,
This soul should fly from me, and I be chang'd
Unto some brutish beast!174 all beasts are happy,
For, when they die,
Their souls are soon dissolv'd in elements;
But mine must live still to be plagu'd in hell.
Curs'd be the parents that engender'd me!
No, Faustus, curse thyself, curse Lucifer
That hath depriv'd thee of the joys of heaven.
[The clock strikes twelve.]
O, it strikes, it strikes! Now, body, turn to air,
Or Lucifer will bear thee quick to hell!
[Thunder and lightning.]
O soul, be chang'd into little water-drops,
And fall into the ocean, ne'er be found!
Enter DEVILS.
My God, my god, look not so fierce on me!
Adders and serpents, let me breathe a while!
Ugly hell, gape not! come not, Lucifer!
I'll burn my books!—Ah, Mephistophilis!
[Exeunt DEVILS with FAUSTUS.]”
― Christopher Marlowe, quote from Dr. Faustus
“I do know, however, that they took more than one man to their beds.”
Adela gasped and Madelyne nodded, thoroughly satisfied by her friend’s reaction. “More than one at a time?” Adela asked. She whispered the question and then blushed with embarrassment.
Madelyne nibbled on her lip while she considered if that was possible.
“I don’t think so,” she finally announced. Her back was to the door, and Adela’s full attention was centered on her friend. Neither noticed Duncan now stood in the open doorway.”
― Julie Garwood, quote from Honor's Splendour
“Experience as well as common sense indicated that the most reliable method of avoiding self-extinction was not to equip oneself with the means to accomplish it in the first place.”
― Iain M. Banks, quote from Consider Phlebas
“The extra line or two around her eyes only made them more fascinating; the touch of silver in her hair enhanced the blackness of the rest; and if she was a little heavier than she had been it made her body more voluptuous.”
― Ken Follett, quote from A Dangerous Fortune
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