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Top 10 Favorite Quotes – BOOKS ONLY

PostPosted: Feb 02, 2010 6:16 pm
by Pattertwigs Pal
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. :ymblushing:

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:
  1. 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.
  2. “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. =)) )
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. "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. ;))
  6. 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”
  7. 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.
  8. ”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.
  9. "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.
  10. 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. :ymblushing:

Edit: Feel free to comment on other people's favorite quotes.

Re: Top 10 Favorite Quotes – BOOKS ONLY

PostPosted: Feb 02, 2010 10:06 pm
by Movie Aristotle
Excellent idea for a thread! Although, I'm going to have to do some thinking before I can put up my own top 10 favorite list, so I'll just take a moment to comment on yours.
#1. Powerful.
#2. Hmm... I've never really thought much about this one.
#3. I was just thinking about this one today. Very funny!
#4. Excellent monologue. I need to memorize this one.
#5. I used to hate this one, but it was delivered so well in the movie that I have to like it.
#6. I absolutely hate this one! I cringe every time I hear it. The smell is too vividly described. Excellently written, but I avoid it nonetheless. Thanks for the giving me another opportunity to run across it. ;)
#7. Not quite as traumatising as #6 since I have never personally smelled a burnt Marshwiggle, nevertheless my opinion on this one is pretty much the same. This line is funnier than #6 though.
#8. I agree. Maybe we should. ;)
#9. This is another nice quotation. I've always thought highly of it.
#10. Again, another line that I cared little about until the movie brought it to life. Except Lucy makes me want to cry when she says it now! :((

Re: Top 10 Favorite Quotes – BOOKS ONLY

PostPosted: Feb 03, 2010 5:22 pm
by Pattertwigs Pal
Movie Aristotle wrote:Although, I'm going to have to do some thinking before I can put up my own top 10 favorite list, so I'll just take a moment to comment on yours.
Take all the time you need. It took me quite awhile to come up with my top ten. In the meantime I'll comment on some of your comments. ;))

Movie Aristotle wrote:#3. I was just thinking about this one today. Very funny!
That's kind of odd that you happened to be thinking about it.
Movie Aristotle wrote:#5. I used to hate this one, but it was delivered so well in the movie that I have to like it.
It was done very well in the movie, although I liked it before that. I can see how some people wouldn't like it.
Movie Aristotle wrote:#6. I absolutely hate this one! I cringe every time I hear it. The smell is too vividly described. Excellently written, but I avoid it nonetheless. Thanks for the giving me another opportunity to run across it. ;)
Sorry I didn't mean to traumatize any one. ;) I don't think I ever quite thought about how that would smell. I think when I decided I liked it I didn't know what "hot self" smelled like. (I was pretty young when I first heard the stories read). I don't remember the smell of hot horse from when I took riding lessons. I'm not sure they got hot enough to stink.
Movie Aristotle wrote:#7. Not quite as traumatising as #6 since I have never personally smelled a burnt Marshwiggle, nevertheless my opinion on this one is pretty much the same. This line is funnier than #6 though.
I don't think anyone has smelled burnt Marsh-wiggle. ;)) Once again, I didn't really think about how it would smell.
Movie Aristotle wrote:#8. I agree. Maybe we should. ;)
I plan to when I get a teaching job.
Movie Aristotle wrote:#10. Again, another line that I cared little about until the movie brought it to life. Except Lucy makes me want to cry when she says it now! :((
It is sad the way Lucy says it in PC. This quote made it on a lot of the merchandise from LWW. In fact, it is on the back of the shield pendent I'm wearing right now. ;))

Re: Top 10 Favorite Quotes – BOOKS ONLY

PostPosted: Feb 07, 2010 3:08 pm
by daughter of the King
Okay, my top ten:

1. "I was the lion who forced you to join with Aravis. I was the cat who comforted you among the houses of the dead. I was the lion who drove the jackals from you while you slept. I was the lion who gave the Horses the new strength of fear for the last mile so that you should reach King Lune in time. And I was the lion you do not remember who pushed the boat in which you lay, a child near death, so that it came to shore where a man sat, wakeful at midnight, to receive you." Aslan to Shasta, HHB The Unwelcome Fellow Traveler
I always get goosebumps when I read that. It's just beautiful. Shasta thinks everything in his life is one bit of bad luck after the other but Aslan shows him that there was a plan for everything that happened, and that his story is more important than Shasta thinks it is.

2. "I am," said Aslan, "But there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there." Aslan to Lucy, Edmund, and Eustace, VDT The Very End of the World
I sometimes feel like Aslan isn't just speaking to Lucy, Edmund, and Eustace. He's speaking to the reader.

3. "'In the world from which my friends come...they have a story of a prince or a king coming to a castle where all the people lay in an enchanted sleep. In that story he could not dissolve the enchantment, until he had kissed the princess.' 'But here,' said the girl, 'it is different. Here he cannot kiss the Princess until he has dissolved the enchantment.' 'Then,' said Caspian,'in the name of Aslan, show me how to set about that work at once.'" Caspian and RD, VDT The Three Sleepers
I'm a hopeless romantic. :ymdaydream:

4. Peter held the door closed but did not shut it; for, of course, he remembered, as every sensible person does, that you should never shut yourself up in a wardrobe. LWW, Back On This Side of the Door
Isn't that the whole point of the story? :D

5. And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before. LB, Farewell to Shadowlands
It's just so beautiful. And the perfect way to end the story.

6. "Begone, Monster, and take your lawful prey to your own place: in the name of Aslan, and Aslan's great Father the Emperor-over-the-Sea." LB, Through the Stable Door
Peter's finest moment in the whole series. I really like how everyone was afraid of Tash and then Peter tells him to leave in Aslan's and the Emperor's names. And he does.

7. "All you've been saying is quite right, I shouldn't wonder. I'm a chap who always likes to know the worst and then put the best face I can on it. So I won't deny any of what you said. But there's one thing more to be said, even so. 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' side, even if there isn't any Aslan to lead it. I'm going to live as like a Narnian if 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 small loss if the world's as dull a place as you say." SC, The Queen of Underland
What can I say that hasn't been said already? Go Puddleglum!

8. "Don't you mind him," said Puddleglum. "There are no accidents. Our guide is Aslan; and he was there when the giant King cause the letters to be cut, and he knew already all things that would come of them; including this." SC, Travels Without the Sun
I like it for the same reason as Pattertwigs Pal.

9. Up till then he had been looking at the Lion's great feet and the huge claws on them; now, in his despair, he looked up at its face. What he saw surprised him as much as anything in his whole life. For the tawny face was bent down near his own, and (wonder of wonders) great shining tears stood in the Lion's eyes. They were such big, bright tears compared to Digory's own that for a moment he felt as if the Lion must really be sorrier about his Mother than he was himself. MN, Strawberry's Adventure
It's so sad and so beautiful at the same time.

10. They began with a rich, brown loam that looked almost exactly like chocolate; so like chocolate, in fact, that Edmund tried a piece of it, but he did not find it at all nice. PC, Aslan Makes a Door in the Air
It makes me laugh.

#:-s I'm done. I don't have time to comment on yours, PP, other than to say if we could do top twenty quotes I'm sure I would have picked some of the ones you did. I noticed we both like Puddleglum though.

Re: Top 10 Favorite Quotes – BOOKS ONLY

PostPosted: Feb 08, 2010 6:08 pm
by Pattertwigs Pal
Here are my comments.
  1. That is a good quote. I also like how it shows that “bad” luck isn’t necessarily “bad” but actually for good.
  2. Also, a good quote. I hadn’t thought of it as Aslan speaking to the reader, but I could see how it could be read that way. In fact, it kind of makes sense. For me anyway, a good deal of the appeal of the books is Aslan, and I sometimes feel kind of sad that I have never personally met the Lion. Although I can’t meet him under Aslan, I can know him by his other name.
  3. I find that quote funny. I don’t know how to describe why I find it funny.
  4. daughter of the King wrote:Isn't that the whole point of the story? :D
    Of course! That and that they need to teach logic in schools. :D
  5. I like this one too. It is the perfect way to end the story.
  6. I hadn’t thought of this line like that before. It is a great moment for Peter.
  7. I don’t need to comment on this one.
  8. Ditto
  9. Also a good part. It is sad and beautiful at the same time.
  10. It is a funny part.
daughter of the King wrote: #:-s I'm done. I don't have time to comment on yours, PP, other than to say if we could do top twenty quotes I'm sure I would have picked some of the ones you did. I noticed we both like Puddleglum though.
No problem. It takes a lot of work just to come up with the list of quotes. Yes, we did both choose the quotes from Puddleglum. My honorable mention made it into your list too. MN and LB are my least favorite books so I tend not to think of them as much as the rest of them so I don't remember the quotes as well.

Re: Top 10 Favorite Quotes – BOOKS ONLY

PostPosted: Feb 13, 2010 12:40 pm
by HighQueenofNarnia
10. "My dear sister and very good Lady," said King Edmund, "you must now show your courage. For I tell you plainly we are in no small danger." I like this one because (at least to me) it shows how the Pevensies reigned as Kings and Queens. It seems like this quote combines the responsibility of ruling and the brotherly love that just comes from being siblings.

9. "Why, don't you know?" said Caspian (to Miraz). "Aslan is the great Lion who comes from over the sea." (Parentheses added) It shows Caspian's innocence- he has no idea how much Miraz fears and hates Aslan. I always felt that the movies made Caspian into a man struggling between two cultures. While this is true, Caspian is more naive and innocent in the book. He looked so old that when he gave in to the Witch (in the movie), people were like, "Isn't he about twenty or something? Shouldn't he know better?"

8. "And what's that? asked the King, pointing to Puddleglum.
"Reshpeckobiggle," said Puddleglum.
"Oh!" screamed the Queen, gathering her skirts close about her ankles. "The horrid thing! It's alive!" Hahaha! Poor Queen!

7. "Blowed if I ain't all in muck sweat," said the Giant, puffing like the largest railway engine. "Comes of being out of condition. I suppose neither of you young ladies has such a thing as a pocket-handkerchee about you?"
""Yes, I have," said Lucy, standing on tip-toes and holding her handkerchief up as far as she could reach.
"Thank you, Missie," said Giant Rumblebuffin, stooping down. Next moment Lucy got rather a fright for she found herself caught mid-air between the Giant's finger and thumb. But just as she was getting near his face he suddenly started and then put her gently back on the ground muttering, "Bless me! I've picked up the little girl instead. I beg your pardon, Missie, I thought you was the handkerchee!"
"No, no," said Lucy laughing, "here it is!" This time he managed to get it but it was only about the same size to him that a saccharine tablet would be to you.
I've always loved this scene and I was disappointed when it wasn't in the movie.

6. Even then Jill remembered to keep her face turned aside, well away from her bow. "Even if I can't stop blubbing, I won't get my string wet," she said.
Jill has such presence of mind! She can stay focused even under intense pressure.

5. "Coward! Poltroon!" squeaked Reepicheep. "Give me my sword and free my paws if you dare."
"Whew!" whistled the slave merchant. "It can talk! Well I never did. Blowed if I take less than two hundred crescents for him." ...
Reepicheep was carried. He had stopped biting on a threat of having his mouth tied up, but he had a great deal to say, and Lucy really wondered how any man could bear to have the things said to him which were said to the slave dealer by the Mouse. But the slave dealer, far from objecting, only said "go on" whenever Reepicheep paused for breath, occasionally adding, "It's as good as a play," or "Blimey, you can't help almost thinking it knows what it's saying!" or "Was it one of you what trained it?' This so infuriated Reepicheep that in the end the number of things he thought of saying nearly suffocated him and he became silent.
Reep's character is developed so much in this little dialogue. He hates to be put down just because he is a Mouse.

4. Under the clever fingers of the little smiths two crowns took shape- not ugly, heavy things like modern European crowns, but light, delicate, beautifully shaped circles that you could really wear and look nicer by wearing. The King's was set with rubies and the Queen's with emeralds.
This is one of the defining characteristics of Narnia- beautiful, light, and comfortable.

3. Caspian declared, "Tell no one of this island, on the pain of death, do you hear?"
"Who are you talking to?" said Edmund. "I'm no subject of yours. If anything it's the other way around. I am one of the four ancient sovereigns of Narnia and you are under allegiance to the High King my brother."
"So it has come to that, King Edmund, has it?" said Caspian, laying his hand on his sword-hilt.
There's more (basically Aslan makes a small appearance and stops the Kings from fighting) but I love this scene because it shows that Edmund isn't perfect. Even after his reformation in LWW, he still can be prideful and controlling. But most of the time Edmund is very humble.

2. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All of their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.
Almost self-explanatory. This is often quoted as the best quote because it is such a great ending to the series. Did you know that it was voted the best book-ending quote by WORLD magazine? (yeah, I know, the ones who messed up the lords, but still) It was submitted by someone whose last name was Aslan. Cool, huh?

1. Luckily Shasta had lived all his life too far south in Calormen to have heard the tales that were whispered in Tashbaan about a dreadful Narnian demon that appeared in the form of a lion. And of course he knew none of the true stories about Aslan, the great Lion, the son of the Emperor-over-the-sea, the King above all High Kings in Narnia. But after one glance at the Lion's face he slipped out of the saddle and fell at its feet. He couldn't say anything but then he didn't want to say anything, and he knew he needn't say anything.
The High King above all kings stooped toward him. Its mane, and some strange perfume that hung about the mane, was all round him. It touched his forehead with its tongue. He lifted up his face and their eyes met. The instantly the pale brightness of the mist and the fiery brightness of the Lion rolled themselves together into a swirling glory and gathered themselves up and disappeared. He was alone with the horse on a grassy hillside under a blue sky. And there were birds singing.
Wow- what an awesome picture of God. This quote is so often overlooked. The whole chapter in HHB is about Shasta's wonderful meeting with Aslan- the most powerful part of the book. It's chapter 11 and a bit of 12, if you want to read the whole thing.