Top 10 Favorite Quotes – BOOKS ONLY
Posted: Feb 02, 2010 6:16 pm
I mentioned when I started the favorite scene thread that I meant to start this thread in “near future” I think my timeline was a little off since that was back in October.
What are your top ten favorite quotes from the Narnia Books? A quote can be as short as a phrase (as long as it is a complete thought / idea and not something like “Soup and Celery”) or as long as a couple of paragraphs. If you are quoting dialog, it shouldn’t have more words than a couple of paragraphs would have. (Since when a new person speaks a new paragraph is started it wouldn’t be fair to use the same guidelines. Think of how much space it would take up without starting new paragraphs with each new speaker.) Explain at least why you like your favorite quotes but explanations are always nice. Please indicate which book the quote is from (you can include the chapter title / number if you wish). Here’s my list:
Honorable mention: I love how Lewis uses every opportunity possible to point out it is foolish to shut oneself in a wardrobe. This doesn't really fit as a quote, but I like it so much I had to mention it.
Edit: Feel free to comment on other people's favorite quotes.
What are your top ten favorite quotes from the Narnia Books? A quote can be as short as a phrase (as long as it is a complete thought / idea and not something like “Soup and Celery”) or as long as a couple of paragraphs. If you are quoting dialog, it shouldn’t have more words than a couple of paragraphs would have. (Since when a new person speaks a new paragraph is started it wouldn’t be fair to use the same guidelines. Think of how much space it would take up without starting new paragraphs with each new speaker.) Explain at least why you like your favorite quotes but explanations are always nice. Please indicate which book the quote is from (you can include the chapter title / number if you wish). Here’s my list:
- You come of the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve ... and that is both honour enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor in earth. – PC, Ch. 15 I like this one because it says it all. I don’t know how else to describe it.
- “I call all times soon,” said Aslan. – VDT, Ch. 11 This quote used to be my favorite. I feel like there is meaning in it I don’t exactly understand. Since I tend to be late or later than I mean to, I think that is why I like it. (Starting this thread is a case in point. )
- Aravis also had many quarrels (and, I'm afraid, even fights) with Cor, but they always made it up again: so that years later, when they were grown up, they were so used to quarrelling and making it up again that they got married so as to go on doing it more conveniently. – HHB, Ch. 15 This is such a unique way of putting that they got married, and it is humorous.
- Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things - trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one. And that's a funny thing, when you come to think of it. We're just babies making up a game, if you're right. But four babies playing a game can make a play-world which licks your real world hollow. That's why I'm going to stand by the play-world. I'm on Aslan's side even if there isn't any Aslan to lead it. I'm going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn't any Narnia. So, thanking you kindly for our supper, if these two gentlemen and the young lady are ready, we're leaving your court at once and setting out in the dark to spend our lives looking for Overland. Not that our lives will be very long, I should think; but that's a small loss if the world's as dull a place as you say. – SC, Ch. 12 This is where Puddleglum really shines, and it is really encouraging.
- "That's the worst of girls," said Edmund to Peter and the Dwarf. "They never can carry a map in their heads."
"That's because our heads have something inside them," said Lucy. – PC, Ch. 9 This dialog is funny. I can to relate to it because I definitely have way too much in my head to keep a map there. - On again, trot and walk and trot, jingle-jingle-jingle, squeak-squeak-squeak, smell of hot horse, smell of hot self, blinding glare, headache. – HHB, Ch. 9 This line really gives an idea of what it was like on the journey. The short phrases make a beat that mirrors the movement of the horses and suggest tiredness. I especially like the part “smell of hot horse, smell of hot self”
- For though the whole fire had not been put out, a good bit of it had, and what remained smelled largely of burnt Marsh-wiggle, which is not at all an enchanting smell. – SC, Ch. 12 It paints a nice word picture with the part about burnt Marsh-wiggle not being enchanting.
- ”Logic!” said the Professor half to himself. “Why don’t they teach logic at these schools?” – LWW, Ch. 5 I often wonder why people are not taught (or don’t use) logic.
- "Don't you mind,” said Puddleglum. “There are no accidents. Our guide is Aslan; and he was there when the giant king caused the letters to be cut, and he knew already all things that would come of them; including this.” – SC, Ch. 10 This is another one of Puddleglum’s good moments. It reminds me that God is in control of my life.
- Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight,
At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more,
When he bares his teeth, winter meets its death
And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again. – LWW, Ch. 8 This was one of the first parts of the Narnia books that stuck in my memory so it had to make it to this list. It also shows who the true deliverer of Narnia would be.
Honorable mention: I love how Lewis uses every opportunity possible to point out it is foolish to shut oneself in a wardrobe. This doesn't really fit as a quote, but I like it so much I had to mention it.
Edit: Feel free to comment on other people's favorite quotes.