It may be,” replied Coll, smiling, “we know least what we treasure most. But we will have more than enough to keep us busy when you come back, and you will learn, my boy, there is nothing like work to put the heart at rest.
For the odd thing about wisdom is the more you use it the more it grows; and the more you share, the more you gain. You’d be amazed how few understand that.
Writing for children can be completely honest in non-cynical ways. In adult books you’re required to be cynical. It embarrasses us to say positive things. You can have affection and hope in children’s books, but that is out of fashion in adult fiction.
The vitality of art is its capacity for infinite expansion. One form doesn’t preclude another any more than the existence of Mozart makes the existence of Bach superfluous.
We learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself.
Is there worse evil than that which goes in the mask of good?
I only suggest to you: Will you dwell on killing this man? You wish for revenge? If you do, he has already killed you by slow poison. So, let it go. Why waste your time? His life will see to his death.
She had no particular breed in mind, no unusual requirements. Except the special sense of mutual recognition that tells dog and human they have both come to the right place.
For man to be worthy of any rank, he must strive first to be a man.
Seize the day, whatever’s in it to seize, before something comes along and seizes you.
If the pull of the outside world is strong, there is also a pull towards the human. The cat may disappear on its own errands, but sooner or later, it returns once again for a little while, to greet us with its own type of love.
Thinking is a bit uncomfortable, but you’ll get used to it. A matter of time and practice.
Two cats can live as cheaply as one, and their owner has twice as much fun.
We hold each other’s lives in our open hands, not in clenched fists.
She has given you something of value: the truth in her heart.
You know how chickens are, imagining the world coming to an end one moment, then pecking corn the next.
All agreed that Quickset was the cleverest cat in the world. And, since Quickset had the same opinion, it was surely true.
If I do find pride, I’ll not find it in what I was or what I am, but what I may become. Not in my birth, but in myself.
My parents were horrified when I told them I wanted to be an author.
When I was discharged, I attended the University of Paris and met a beautiful Parisian girl, Janine. We soon married and eventually returned to the States.