Despereaux's Quotes

#1. The sound of the king's music made Despereaux's soul grow large and light inside of him.

Kate DiCamillo

#2. Love is ridiculous. But love is also wonderful. And powerful. And Despereaux's love for the Princess Pea would prove, in time, to be all of these things: powerful, wonderful, and ridiculous.

Kate DiCamillo

#3. Furlough?" He said.
"What?" said the first hood irritably.
Despereaux shuddered. His own brother was delivering him to the dungeon. His heart stopped beating and shrunk to a small, cold, disbelieving pebble.

Kate DiCamillo

#4. Despereaux turned. He looked up and into the Head Mouse's eyes. They were dark eyes, deep and sad and frightened. And as Despereaux looked into them, his heart thudded once, twice.

Kate DiCamillo

#5. The story is not a pretty one. there is violence in it. And cruelty. But stories that are not pretty have a certain value, too, I suppose. Everything, as you well know (having lived in this world long enough to have figured out a thing or two for yourself), cannont always be sweetness and light.

Kate DiCamillo

#6. No one cared what she wanted. No one had ever cared. And perhaps, worst of all, no one ever would care.

Kate DiCamillo

#7. Once upon a time, he said out loud to the darkness. He said these words because they were the best, the most powerful words that he knew and just the saying of them comforted him.

Kate DiCamillo

#8. Despereaux marveled at his own bravery.
He admired his own defiance.
And then, reader, he fainted.

Kate DiCamillo

#9. Despereaux thought that he might faint with the pleasure of someone referring to his ears as small and lovely. He laid his tail against the Pea's wrist to steady himself and he felt the princess's pulse, the pounding of her heart, and his own heart immediately took up the rhythm of hers.

Kate DiCamillo

#10. There is somebody who loves me," said Despereaux. "And I love her and that is the only thing that matters to me.

Kate DiCamillo

#11. If a course needs to be in great condition to be played effectively, then the design strategy is flawed.

Tom Watson

#12. The reality is he's a specialist because eight years without a piece of silverware ... that is failure.

Jose Mourinho

#13. Self love is an ocean
and your heart is a vessel. Make it full,
and any excess will spill over
into the lives of the people
you hold dear. But you must come first.

Beau Taplin

#14. Despereaux," she whispered.
And then she shouted it, "Despereaux!"
Reader, nothing is sweeter in this sad world than the sound of someone you love calling your name.
Nothing.

Kate DiCamillo

#15. I will be brave, thought Despereaux. I will try to be brave like a knight in shining armour. I will be brave for the Princess Pea.

Kate DiCamillo

#16. He was right to insist. If they put her on a train,

Laura Moriarty

#17. Your talent can take you where your character can't keep you.

Matt Tommey

#18. There are three relations [between thee and other things]: the one to the body which surrounds thee; the second to the divine cause from which all things come to all; and the third to those who live with thee.

Marcus Aurelius

#19. By the definite science of meditation known for millenniums to the yogis and sages of India, and to Jesus, any seeker of God can enlarge the caliber of his consciousness to omniscience to receive within himself the Universal Intelligence of God.

Paramahansa Yogananda

#20. I can't change what I did yesterday. I can't change what hasn't happened yet tomorrow. I can only work on the today and the right now.

Just Jewel

#21. Reader, do you believe that there is such a thing as happily ever after? Or, like Despereaux, have you, too, begun to question the possibility of happy endings?

Kate DiCamillo

#22. Have you ever traveled, beyond all mere metaphors, to the Mountain of Shame and stayed for a thousand years? I do not recommend it.

Sam Harris

#23. Despereaux was reading the story out loud to himself. He was reading from the beginning so that he could get to the end ...

Kate DiCamillo

#24. You, friend, are on a quest." "I don't know what that is," said Despereaux. "You don't have to know. You just have to feel compelled to do the thing, the impossible, important task at hand.

Kate DiCamillo

#25. I don't understand,' said Despereaux.
'And you will not understand until you lose what you love ...

Kate DiCamillo

#26. This is a wonderful joke to play upon a prisoner, to promise forgiveness.

Kate DiCamillo

#27. My soul's the present shadow of a presence gone.

Fernando Pessoa

#28. Besides, who ever asked you what you wanted in this world, girl?
The answer to that question, reader, as you well know, was absolutely no one.

Kate DiCamillo

#29. Why would you save me?
Because you, mouse, can tell Gregory a story. Stories are light. Light is precious in a world so dark. Begin at the beginning. Tell Gregory a story. Make some light.'
- A Tale of Despereaux, Kate Dicamillo - P. 81

Kate DiCamillo

#30. I'm thrilled by the fact that I made something out of nothing. There it is! It wasn't there before: there it is - I made it! That's pretty powerful, and that's the power that Buddhists give to every single person.

Laurie Anderson

#31. Like most hearts, it was complicated, shaded with dark and dappled with light.

Kate DiCamillo