“Don't let anyone tell you the future is already written. The best any prophet can do is to give you the most likely version of future events. It is up to us to accept the future for what it is, or change it. It is easy to go with the flow; it takes a person of singular courage to go against it.”
― Jasper Fforde, quote from The Last Dragonslayer
“Cats aren't really friendly, they're just cozying up to the dominant life-form as a hedge against extinction.”
― Jasper Fforde, quote from The Last Dragonslayer
“That's the thing about destiny: It can't be predicted, and it's usually pretty odd.”
― Jasper Fforde, quote from The Last Dragonslayer
“Sometimes choice is a luxury that fate does not afford us.”
― Jasper Fforde, quote from The Last Dragonslayer
“The Kingdom of Hereford was unique in the Ununited Kingdoms for having driving tests based on maturity, not age, much to the chagrin of a lot of males, some of whom were still failing to make the grade at thirty-two.”
― Jasper Fforde, quote from The Last Dragonslayer
“Money is a form of alchemy, [...] it turns kind, normal people into greed-mongers, intent only on acquisitiveness.”
― Jasper Fforde, quote from The Last Dragonslayer
“Quarkbeasts, for all their fearsome looks, are obedient to a fault. They are nine-tenths velociraptor and kitchen blender and one-tenth Labrador. It was the Labrador tenth that I valued most.”
― Jasper Fforde, quote from The Last Dragonslayer
“You have many fine qualities that I admire. But you are out of time. You should have been born a century ago, when values such as yours meant something.”
― Jasper Fforde, quote from The Last Dragonslayer
“Love and magic are like oil and water--they just don't mix.”
― Jasper Fforde, quote from The Last Dragonslayer
“Don't get in a blue car on a Thursday.'
'Which Thursday?'
'Any Thursday.'
'What kind of car?'
'A blue one. On a Thursday.'
'Okay.”
― Jasper Fforde, quote from The Last Dragonslayer
“Sometimes your destiny takes you to dark places where you'd rather not be, but destiny, as they say, is destiny.”
― Jasper Fforde, quote from The Last Dragonslayer
“Sometimes you have to do things you don't want to for the greater good.”
― Jasper Fforde, quote from The Last Dragonslayer
“Just walk through him," I said, still deep in thought. "and if you ever wanted to know how a moose works, just stop halfway and take a good look around.”
― Jasper Fforde, quote from The Last Dragonslayer
“It was written in the ancient RUNIX spell-language, and is read-only and can't be modified.”
― Jasper Fforde, quote from The Last Dragonslayer
“-Les presento al nuevo expósito, Tiger Prawns. Tiger te presento a las hermanas Karamázov. Deirdre y Deirdre.
-¿Por qué se llaman igual?
-Tenían un padre con muy poca imaginación.”
― Jasper Fforde, quote from The Last Dragonslayer
“...Mind you, if we we're talking about regeneration, we could go a step further and take a leaf out of the sponge book. There are sponges you can chop to pieces, whiz up in the blender, and then press through a sieve, but they'll still regenerate."
"Useful, maybe," I replied, "but I think there is a limit to the amount of fun you could have as a sponge.”
― Jasper Fforde, quote from The Last Dragonslayer
“Soothsayers are like that. They see many futures but never their own.”
― Jasper Fforde, quote from The Last Dragonslayer
“Governments might come and go, wars will reshape the Ununited Kingdoms many times. But companies will stay, and flourish. Show me any major even on this planet and I will show you the economic reason behind it. Commerce is all powerful, Miss Strange. Commerce rules our lives.”
― Jasper Fforde, quote from The Last Dragonslayer
“Said by Maltcassion the Dragon:
"Humans," he scoffed. "Always so inquiring about stuff. Never satisfied with the status quo. It will be your downfall, but oddly enough, it´s also one of your more endearing features."
"Do we have any otheres?"
"Oy yes, plenty.”
― Jasper Fforde, quote from The Last Dragonslayer
“Eso es lo malo de las premoniciines, que tienen la molesta costumbre de hacerse realidad.”
― Jasper Fforde, quote from The Last Dragonslayer
“Bienvenido a Kazam (...), donde los horrores más inimaginables comparten el día a día con la perplejidad absoluta y el azar más rabioso. Definirlo como manicomio sería un insulto hasta para el más desquiciado de los manicomios.”
― Jasper Fforde, quote from The Last Dragonslayer
“Las premoniciones se cumplen porque la gente quiere que se cumplan. Un observador siempre cambia el resultadi de un acontecimiento; millines de observadores, como en este caso, lo garantizan.”
― Jasper Fforde, quote from The Last Dragonslayer
“No te creas a quien te diga que el futuro ya está escrito. Lo mas que puede hacer un profeta es ofrecerte la versión más probable de los futuros acontecimientos, pero depende de nosotros aceptar el futuro tal y como es, o cambiarlo. Es fácil dejarse llevar por la corriente, pues para nadar en contra hay que ser muy valiente.”
― Jasper Fforde, quote from The Last Dragonslayer
“I see you've met Patrick of Ludlow," I replied, trying to stifle a giggle, for Tiger was thirty feet up in the shabby atrium , perched high upon a chandelier. "How long have you been up there?"
"Half an hour," he answered crossly, "with only a lot of dust and the Transient Moose for company.”
― Jasper Fforde, quote from The Last Dragonslayer
“The convent of the sacred order of the Blessed Ladies of the Lobster had once been a dank and dark medieval castle but was now, after a lick of paint and a few throw pillows, a dank and dark convent.”
― Jasper Fforde, quote from The Last Dragonslayer
“Dragons, like four o’clock tea, crumpets, marmalade, and zip-up cardigans, are a peculiarity to the Ununited Kingdoms. They are fierce, fire-breathing creatures of great intelligence, dignity, and sensitivity who could and did converse on matters of great importance. But for all their intelligence, wit, and social graces, dragons still had one habit that made them impossible to ignore.” “And that is?” “They liked to eat people.”
― Jasper Fforde, quote from The Last Dragonslayer
“Working with those versed in the Mystical Arts was sometimes like trying to knit with wet spaghetti: just when you thought you’d gotten somewhere, it all came to pieces in your hands.”
― Jasper Fforde, quote from The Last Dragonslayer
“Everyone can do a bit,” I said, wondering where Kevin Zipp was. “If you’re thinking of somebody and the phone rings and it’s them, that’s magic. If you get a curious feeling that you’ve been or done something before, then that’s magic, too. It’s everywhere. It seeps into the fabric of the world and oozes out as coincidence, fate, chance, luck, or what have you. The big problem is having enough magic to make it work for you in some useful manner.”
― Jasper Fforde, quote from The Last Dragonslayer
Jasper Fforde
Born place: in London, England, The United Kingdom
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“Give me priests. Give me men with feathers in their hair, or tall domed hats, female oracles in caves, servants of the python, smoking weed and reading palms. A gypsy fortuneteller with a foot-peddle ouija board and a gold fish bowl for a crystal ball knows more about the world than many of the great thinkers of the West. Mumbling priests swinging stink cans on their chains and even witch doctors conjuring up curses with a well-buried elephant tooth have a better sense of their places in the world. They know this universe is brimming with magic, with life and riddles and ironies. They know that the world might eat them, and no encyclopedia could stop it”
― N.D. Wilson, quote from Notes From The Tilt-A-Whirl: Wide-Eyed Wonder in God's Spoken World
“Because, you see, in life, every triumph begins with failure.”
― Adam Gidwitz, quote from The Grimm Conclusion
“Chimpanzees are so skilled at working together to hunt down other chimpanzees that lethal intergroup aggression, or murder, is among the leading causes of mortality in wild chimpanzees.”
― Brian Hare, quote from The Genius of Dogs
“Scientists were the embodiment of this new-fangled sobriety—impartial, businesslike, colorless, and reliable. Or so people assumed. For in actual practice, it was their supposed impartiality that allowed them to gain so much influence. One”
― David Van Reybrouck, quote from Congo: The Epic History of a People
“I process that. I realize that the more I talk to people, the more I see everyone has something going on underneath the surface.”
― Janet Gurtler, quote from #16thingsithoughtweretrue
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