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40 of Our Favorite Quotes from Children’s Books

This week we’ve shared posts and freebies related to literature, so we thought we’d do something fun to wrap up the week! We asked YOU in the Hip Homeschool Moms Community to share your favorite quotes from children’s books. We got some great responses, and we’re happy to share them with you!

HHM 40 of Our Favorite Quotes

 

book Jillian Jigs

#1

“Jillian, Jillian, Jillian, Jiggs!
It looks like your room has been lived in by pigs!
Later. I promise. As soon as I’m through,
I’ll clean up my room. I promise I do!”

Jillian Jiggs by Phoebe Gilman

book The Lorax

#2

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot

Nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”

The Lorax by Dr. Seuss

book The Velveteen Rabbit

#3

“Real isn’t how you are made,

It’s a thing that happens to you.”

The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams

book Love You Forever

#4

“I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for always,

as long as I’m living, my baby you’ll be.”

 Love You Forever by Robert Munsch

book The Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh

#5

“Promise me you’ll always remember that you are braver than you believe,

stronger than you seem,

and smarter than you think.”

#6

“If you live to be 100, I hope I live to be 100 minus 1 day,

so I never have to live without you.”

Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne

book Alice in Wonderland

#7

“Do you suppose she’s a wildflower?”

#8

“Why it’s simply impassible!
Alice: Why, don’t you mean impossible?
Door: No, I do mean impassible. (chuckles) Nothing’s impossible!”

#9

“You’re mad, bonkers, completely off your head.

But I’ll tell you a secret. All the best people are.”

Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

book Horton Hears a Who

#10

“A person’s a person

No matter how small.”

Horton Hears a Who! by Dr. Seuss

book The Secret Garden

#11

“If you look the right way,

you can see that the whole world is a garden.”

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

book Happy Birthay to You

#12

“Today you are You, that is truer than true.

There is no one alive who is Youer than You.”

Happy Birthday to You! by Dr. Seuss

book Charlottes Web

#13

“Never hurry and never worry!”

#14

“You have been my friend. That in itself is a tremendous thing.

I wove my webs for you because I liked you.

After all, what’s a life, anyway? We’re born, we live a little while, we die.

A spider’s life can’t help being something of a mess, with all this trapping and eating flies.

By helping you, perhaps I was trying to lift up my life a trifle.

Heaven knows anyone’s life can stand a little of that.”

Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White

book Dangerously Ever After

#15

“The noses sniffed and snorted, and after a while the princess began sniffing too.

She smelled something wonderful.

It smelled like candy and lemons and cloves.

It smelled like sleeping in the sun and staying up late for a party.

It smelled like secrets and summer and beautiful dresses and the kind of folding knife

that comes with scissors and a screwdriver.

It was the smell of thousands of roses.”

Dangerously Ever After by by Dashka Slater

book Peter Pan 2

#16

“When the first baby laughed for the first time,

its laugh broke into a thousand pieces,

and they all went skipping about,

and that was the beginning of fairies.”

#17

“The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease for ever to be able to do it.”

Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

book Anne of Green Gables

#18

“Isn’t it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?”

#19

“It’s been my experience that you can nearly always enjoy things if you make up your mind firmly that you will.”

#20

“I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.”

Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery

book Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

#21

“Age is foolish and forgetful when it underestimates youth.”

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J. K. Rowling

book The Fellowship of the Ring

#22

“All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.”

The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien

book The Little White Bird

#23

“Shall we make a new rule of life from tonight:

always try to be a little kinder than is necessary?”

The Little White Bird by J.M. Barrie

book Maurice Sendak

#24

“And now,” cried Max, “let the wild rumpus start!”

Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

book I Can Read with My Eyes Shut

#25

“The more that you read, the more things you will know.

The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”

I Can Read with My Eyes Shut! by Dr. Seuss

book The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

#26

“Because, this is a very great adventure,

and no danger seems to me so great as that of knowing when I get back to Narnia

that I left a mystery behind me through fear.” ~Sir Reepicheep

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis

book Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

#27

“It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.”

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

book The Lion and the Mouse

#28

“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.”

Aesop’s Fables The Lion and the Mouse

book Every Thing On It

#29

“She had blue skin,
And so did he.
He kept it hid
And so did she.
They searched for blue
Their whole life through,
Then passed right by-
And never knew.”

Every Thing On It by Shel Silverstein

book Where the Sidewalk Ends

#30

“​Listen to the MUSTN’TS, child,
Listen to the DON’TS
Listen to the SHOULDN’TS
The IMPOSSIBLES, the WON’TS
Listen to the NEVER HAVES
Then listen close to me—
Anything can happen, child,
ANYTHING can be.”

Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein

book The Sneetches

#31

“The Sneetches got really quite smart on that day.

The day they decided that Sneetches are Sneetches.

And no kind of Sneetch is the best on the beaches.

That day, all the Sneetches forgot about stars

and whether they had one, or not, upon thars.”

The Sneetches and Other Stories by Dr. Seuss

book The Little Engine That Could

#32

“I think I can. I think I can. I think I can. I know I can.”

The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper

  book Oh The Places You'll Go

#33

“So…
be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray
or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O’Shea,
you’re off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So…get on your way!”

Oh, The Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss

book The Monster at the End of This Book

#34

“Do you know that you are very strong?”

The Monster at the End of This Book (Sesame Street)

book Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

#35

“It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling

book A Light in the Attic

#36

“How much good inside a day?
Depends how good you live ‘em.
How much love inside a friend?
Depends how much you give ‘em.”

A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein

book The Wizard of Oz

#37

“There’s no place like home.”

#38

“There is no living thing that is not afraid when it faces danger. True courage is in facing danger when you are afraid.”

The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

book Olivia

#39

“When they’ve finished reading, Olivia’s mother gives her a kiss and says,

‘You know, you really wear me out. But I love you anyway.’

And Olivia gives her a kiss back and says, ‘I love you anyway too.'”

Olivia by Ian Falconer

book Sylvester and the Magic Pebble

#40

“Mr. Duncan put the Maggie Pebble in an iron safe.

Some day they may want to use it, but really, for now, what more could they wish for?

They had all that they wanted.”

Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig

Do you have a favorite quote from a children’s book that you’d like to share with us? Please leave the quote and the name of the book in the comments below!

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10 Comments

  1. A.A. Milne did not write the “quote” listed in #5. It is an oft-used quote incorrectly cited to him. It is actually the creation of Disney. His work is far more subtle and nuanced than this.

    1. But, A. A. Milne is the author of this particular book in which he used a quote that may have been first said by someone else. I think this happens often. Nevertheless, we all know the quote from Milne’s very popular book about Winnie the Pooh. Thank you, though, for that bit of trivia, it is a fun fact!

  2. I don’t know who wrote the book, but it was read on the TV show, Captain Kangaroo many, many years ago. I have tried to find the book by the quote to no avail, but I quoted it often to encourage my children. It was about a little mouse who became a hero, but he kept repeating this phrase as his adventures ensued: “I’m doing the best I can do, and the best I can do is the best I can do.” It gives us so much room to accept grace for ourselves and to give grace to others as well.”

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