Francesca > Francesca's Quotes

“In the land of Ingary where such things as seven-league boots and cloaks of invisibility really exist, it is quite a misfortune to be born the eldest of the three. Everyone knows you are the one who will fail first, and worst, if the three of you set out to seek your fortunes.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Howl’s Moving Castle

“A heart's a heavy burden.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Howl’s Moving Castle

“I've got a hangover."
"No, you hit your head on the floor."
"I can't stay. I've got to rescue that fool Sophie.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Howl’s Moving Castle

“So you were going to rescue the Prince! Why did you pretend to run away? To deceive the Witch?"

"Not likely! I'm a coward. Only way I can do something this frightening is to tell myself I'm not doing it!”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Howl’s Moving Castle

“More about Howl? Sophie thought desperately. I have to blacken his name! Her mind was such a blank that for a second it actually seemed to her that Howl had no faults at all. How stupid! 'Well, he's fickle, careless, selfish, and hysterical,' she said. 'Half the time I think he doesn't care what happens to anyone as long as he's alright--but then I find out how awfully kind he's been to someone. Then I think he's kind just when it suits him--only then I find out he undercharges poor people. I don't know, Your Majesty. He's a mess.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Howl’s Moving Castle

“That's why I love spiders. 'If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Howl’s Moving Castle

“Things are going round and round in my head--or maybe my head is going round and round in things.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Howl’s Moving Castle

“A fickle heart is the only constant in this world”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Howl’s Moving Castle

“Meanwhile a certain amount of moaning and groaning was coming from upstairs. Sophie kept muttering to the dog and ignored it. A loud, hollow coughing followed, dying away into more moaning. Crashing sneezes followed the coughing, each one rattling the window and all the doors. Sophie found those harder to ignore, but she managed. Poot-pooooot! went a blown nose, like a bassoon in a tunnel. The coughing started again, mingled with moans. Sneezes mixed with the moans and the coughs, and the sounds rose to a crescendo in which Howl seemed to be managing to cough, groan, blow his nose, sneeze, and wail gently all at the same time. The doors rattled, the beams in the ceiling shook, and one of Calcifer’s logs rolled off onto the hearth.
“All right, all right, I get the message!” Sophie said, dumping the log back into the grate. “It’ll be green slime next”.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Howl’s Moving Castle

“Nothing is safe from you. If I were to court a girl who lived on an iceberg in the middle of the ocean, sooner or later— probably sooner— I’d look up to see you swooping overhead on a broomstick. In fact, by now I’d be disappointed in you if I didn’t see you.”
“Are you off to the iceberg today?” Sophie retorted.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Howl’s Moving Castle

“Nobody can buy a hat without gossiping.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Howl’s Moving Castle

“Sorry, I've had enough of running away, Sophie. Now I've got something I want to protect. It's you.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Howl’s Moving Castle

“I want to go about like the light-footed goats.”
― Johanna Spyri, Heidi

“Flowers are made to bloom in the sun and not to be shut up in an apron.”
― Johanna Spyri, Heidi

“The poor child felt like a little bird that is placed in a glittering cage.”
― Johanna Spyri, Heidi

“The fire in the evening was the best of all. Peter said is wasn't fie, but he couldn't tell me what it really was. You can thought, Grandfather, can't you?'
'It's the sun's way of saying goodnight to the mountains' he explained. 'He spreads that beautiful light over them so that they won't forget him till he comes back in the morning.”
― Johanna Spyri, Heidi

“But she had to go to bed first, and all night she slept soundly on her bed of hay, dreaming of nothing but of shining mountains with red roses all over them, among which happy little Snowflake went leaping in and out.”
― Johanna Spyri, Heidi

“If you don't see the book you want on the shelf write it.”
― Beverly Cleary, Heidi

“What are men to rocks and mountains?”
― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

“He loved mountains, or he had loved the thought of them marching on the edge of stories brought from far away; but now he was borne down by the insupportable weight of Middle-earth. He longed to shut out the immensity in a quiet room by a fire.”
― J R R Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

“Man selects only for his own good: Nature only for that of the being which she tends.”
― Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species

“If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down. But I can find no such case.”
― Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species

“Nevertheless so profound is our ignorance, and so high our presumption, that we marvel when we hear of the extinction of an organic being; and as we do not see the cause, we invoke cataclysms to desolate the world, or invent laws on the duration of the forms of life!”
― Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species

“Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.”
― Voltaire

“Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.”
― Voltaire

“And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair”
― Khalil Gibran, The Prophet

“We are all like the bright moon, we still have our darker side.”
― Khalil Gibran

“You are capable of more than you know. Choose a goal that seems right for you and strive to be the best, however hard the path. Aim high. Behave honorably. Prepare to be alone at times, and to endure failure. Persist! The world needs all you can give.”
― E.O. Wilson

“Real scientists do not take vacations. They take field trips...”
― Edward O. Wilson