Lloyd Alexander

She has given you something of value: the truth in her heart.

— Lloyd Alexander

Perhaps one reason we are fascinated by cats is because such a small animal can contain so much independence, dignity, and freedom of spirit. Unlike the dog, the cat's personality is never bet on a human's. He demands acceptance on his own terms.

— Lloyd Alexander

We learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself.

— Lloyd Alexander

Perhaps one reason we are fascinated by cats is because such a small animal can contain so much independence, dignity, and freedom of spirit. Unlike the dog, the cat's personality is never bet on a human's. He demands acceptance on his own terms.

— Lloyd Alexander

Laws assure animals of protection – formally, officially, set down in black and white. But in the long run, the best protection is the human heart.

— Lloyd Alexander

The muse in charge of fantasy wears good, sensible shoes.

— Lloyd Alexander

In the algebra of fantasy, A times B doesn't have to equal B times A. But, once established, the equation must hold throughout the story.

— Lloyd Alexander

Fantasy, by its power to move us so deeply, to dramatize, even melo-dramatize, morality, can be one of the most effective means of establishing a capacity for adult values.

— Lloyd Alexander

At heart, the issues raised in a work of fantasy are those we face in real life. In whatever guise—our own daily nightmares of war, intolerance, inhumanity; or the struggles of an Assistant Pig-Keeper against the Lord of Death—the problems are agonizingly familiar. And an openness to compassion, love and mercy, is as essential to us here and now as it is to any inhabitant of an imaginary kingdom.

— Lloyd Alexander

Our only hope for tomorrow is peace now.

— Lloyd Alexander

The raw materials of story are the raw materials of all human cultures. Story deals with the same questions as theology, philosophy, psychology. It is concerned with polarities: love and hate, birth and death, joy and sorrow, loss and recovery.

— Lloyd Alexander

Story, finally, is humanity's autobiography.

— Lloyd Alexander

Fantasy is hardly an escape from reality. It's a way of understanding it.

— Lloyd Alexander

Keep reading. It's one of the most marvelous adventures that anyone can have.

— Lloyd Alexander

“But I’m Pharaoh,” Neter-Khet said. “I’m supposed to give orders.”“In a way they were,” Jason said, “and in a way they weren’t. A cat can belong to you, but you can’t own him. There’s a difference.”

— Lloyd Alexander

“Oh yes,” said the Emperor. “That’s what you have to do when you approach the Celestial Presence—that’s me.”“Well, I’m afraid that no cat in the world ever bowed to an emperor,” said Jason. “They just won’t do it, Ichigo, and you’re wasting your time if you try to force them. A cat does what he wants, when he wants, emperor or not.”

— Lloyd Alexander

“That’s another thing about emperors—and regents,” Gareth said. “They aren’t very fond of changes, even if the changes are for the better.”

— Lloyd Alexander

“Didn’t you ever see a cat before?”“Of course I did,” said the boy. “Hundreds of them. But just because you’ve seen something, it doesn’t mean you stop looking. There’s always something you didn’t see before.”

— Lloyd Alexander

He’s as impartial as a herring’s backbone, for he favors neither side and is attached to both!

— Lloyd Alexander

“What civilization would be complete without a cat?” the Professor went on. “What greater blessing to the home than the kindly yet watchful eye of this tiger of the fireside?”

— Lloyd Alexander

Most of us are called on to perform tasks far beyond what we believe we can do. Our capabilities seldom match our aspirations, and we are often woefully unprepared. To this extent, we are all Assistant Pig-Keepers at heart.

— Lloyd Alexander

Well, that is one of the three foundations of learning: see much, study much, suffer much.

— Lloyd Alexander

Why?" Dallben interrupted. "In some cases," he said, "we learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself.

— Lloyd Alexander

It is not the trappings that make the prince, nor, indeed, the sword that makes the warrior.

— Lloyd Alexander

The task counts more than the one who does it.

— Lloyd Alexander

I don't even know who I am.""In a way," answered Gwydion, "that is something we must all discover for ourselves.

— Lloyd Alexander

I can't make sense out of that girl," he said to the bard. "Can you?" "Never mind," Fflewddur said. "We aren't really expected to.

— Lloyd Alexander

Neither refuse to give help when it is needed," Medwyn continued, "nor refuse to accept it when it is offered.

— Lloyd Alexander

This is a place of peace," Medwyn said, "and therefore not suitable for men, at least, not yet.

— Lloyd Alexander

Once you have courage to look upon evil, seeing it for what it is and naming it by its true name, it is powerless against you, and you can destroy it.

— Lloyd Alexander

Even in a fantasy realm, growing up is accomplished not without cost.

— Lloyd Alexander

We hold each other’s lives in our open hands, not in clenched fists.

— Lloyd Alexander

I have marched in many a battle host," Adaon answered quietly, "but I have also planted seeds and reaped the harvest with my own hands. And I have learned there is greater honor in a field well plowed than in a field steeped in blood.

— Lloyd Alexander

“There is much to be known,” said Adaon, “and above all much to be loved, be it the turn of the seasons or the shape of a river pebble. Indeed, the more we find to love, the more we add to the measure of our hearts.”

— Lloyd Alexander

There is truth in all things, if you understand them well.

— Lloyd Alexander

Is there not glory enough in living the days given to us? You should know there is adventure in simply being among those we love and the things we love, and beauty, too.

— Lloyd Alexander

We’re neither good nor evil. We’re simply interested in things as they are.

— Lloyd Alexander

“It is easy to judge evil unmixed,” replied Gwydion. “But, alas, in most of us good and bad are closely woven as the threads on a loom; greater wisdom than mine is needed for the judging.”

— Lloyd Alexander

Child, child, do you not see? For each of us comes a time when we must be more than what we are.

— Lloyd Alexander

“So you say, so you say,” murmured Fflewddur, hurrying after him. “Look closer into your heart. You may find your opinion to be somewhat different.”

— Lloyd Alexander

The destinies of men are woven one with the other, and you can turn aside from them no more than you can turn aside from your own.

— Lloyd Alexander

Speak up, my boy. If you want truth, you should begin by giving it.

— Lloyd Alexander

“Believe what you like. You'll be surprised how comforting it is.”“I ask no comfort,” Taran replied, “but the truth, be it harsh or happy.”

— Lloyd Alexander

In the race of men is much greed and envy; but of truth, little.

— Lloyd Alexander

Indeed, the more we find to love, the more we add to the measure of our hearts.

— Lloyd Alexander

If I do find pride, I'll not find it in what I was or what I am, but what I may become. Not in my birth, but in myself.

— Lloyd Alexander

If I fret over tomorrow, I'll have little joy today.

— Lloyd Alexander

If life is a loom, the pattern you weave is not so easily unraveled.

— Lloyd Alexander

Craftsmanship isn’t like water in an earthen pot, to be taken out by the dipperful until it’s empty. No, the more drawn out the more remains.

— Lloyd Alexander

“Count yourself lucky,” the potter went on, “that you have understood this now and not spent your years in vain hope. This much have you learned, and no learning is wasted.”

— Lloyd Alexander

“When I was a child I dreamed of adventure, glory, honor in feats of arms. I think now that these things are shadows.”“If you see them as shadows then you see them for what they are,” Annlaw agreed. “Many have pursued honor, and in the pursuit lost more of it than ever they could gain.”

— Lloyd Alexander

“Llonio said life was a net for luck; to Hevydd the Smith life was a forge; and to Dwyvach the Weaver-Woman a loom. They spoke truly, for it is all of these. But you,” Taran said, his eyes meeting the potter’s, “you have shown me life is one thing more. It is clay to be shaped, as raw clay on a potter’s wheel.”

— Lloyd Alexander

A crown is more discomfort than adornment. If you have learned that, you have already learned much.

— Lloyd Alexander

This much have I learned: A man’s life weighs more than glory, and a price paid in blood is a heavy reckoning.

— Lloyd Alexander

Take this as a gift from a crone to a maiden, and know there is not so much difference between the two. For even a tottering granddam keeps a portion of girlish heart, and the youngest maiden a thread of old woman’s wisdom.

— Lloyd Alexander

“You are the oaken staff I lean on,” Taran said. “More than that.” He laughed. “You are the whole sturdy tree, and a true warrior.”Coll, instead of beaming, looked wryly at him. “Do you mean to honor me?” he asked. “Then say, rather, I am a true grower of turnips, and a gatherer of apples. No warrior whatever, save that I am needed thus for a while. My garden longs for me as much as I long for it.”

— Lloyd Alexander

A crown is a pitiless master, harsher than the staff of a pig-keeper; while a staff bears up, a crown weighs down, beyond the strength of any man to wear it lightly.

— Lloyd Alexander

Is there worse evil than that which goes in the mask of good?

— Lloyd Alexander

Are these signs of hope, or do we deceive ourselves by wishing them to be?

— Lloyd Alexander

Draw Dyrnwyn, only thou of noble worth, to rule with justice, to strike down evil. Who wields it in good cause shall slay even the Lord of Death.

— Lloyd Alexander

Evil cannot be conquered by wishing.

— Lloyd Alexander

And so they lived many happy years, and the promised tasks were accomplished. Yet long afterward, when all had passed away into distant memory, there were many who wondered whether King Taran, Queen Eilonwy, and their companions had indeed walked the earth, or whether they had been no more than dreams in a tale set down to beguile children. And, in time, only the bards knew the truth of it.

— Lloyd Alexander