Peter S. Beagle Quotes

76 Sourced Quotes

The Unicorn Sonata … tells us that our true home is often right around the corner, if we'd only open our eyes — and our ears — to find it.

Peter S. Beagle
But the enchantment of error that you put on me I must wear forever in your eyes.

Peter S. Beagle
Marveling at his own boldness, he said softly, "I would enter your sleep if I could, and guard you there, and slay the thing that hounds you, as I would if it had the courage to face me in fair daylight. But I cannot come in unless you dream of me.

Peter S. Beagle
As for you and your heart and the things you said and didn't say, she will remember them all when men are fairy tales in books written by rabbits.

Peter S. Beagle
Farewell,' she said. 'I hope you hear many more songs' - which was the best way she could think of to say good-bye to a butterfly.

Peter S. Beagle
This creature is the Pooka. Pay no mind to the shape he wears, for he's none of his own, and no soul either. Ware him ever, trust him never, but when the wind's right he has his uses. Never forget that you will never know him. The Pooka's mystery even to the Pooka.

Peter S. Beagle
I am what I am. I would tell you what you want to know if I could, for you have been kind to me. But I am a cat, and no cat anywhere ever gave anyone a straight answer.

Peter S. Beagle
There are honest people in the world, but only because the devil considers their asking prices ridiculous.

Peter S. Beagle
Love was generous precisely because it could never be immortal.

Peter S. Beagle
When I was very young every grownup was a hero. It's been all downhill since then, and I have only two left.

Peter S. Beagle
If a man loved me, I would have talked myself into loving him, and I would have loved him very deeply after a while.

Peter S. Beagle
Unicorns are immortal. It is their nature to live alone in one place: usually a forest where there is a pool clear enough for them to see themselves -- for they are a little vain, knowing themselves to be the most beautiful.

Peter S. Beagle
I feel a whole country growing inside me, thousands of years, millions of people, stupid, crazy, shrewd people, and all of them me. I never felt like that before, I never felt that there was anything inside me, even myself.

Peter S. Beagle
Don't look back, and don't run. You must never run from anything immortal; it attracts their attention.

Peter S. Beagle
I know how to live here, I know how everything smells, and tastes, and is. What could I ever search for in the world, except this again?

Peter S. Beagle
My people are in the world again. No sorrow will live in my heart as long as that joy — save one, and I thank you for that, too.

Peter S. Beagle
The most professional curse ever snarled or croaked or thundered can have no effect on a pure heart.

Peter S. Beagle
Whatever can die is beautiful — more beautiful than a unicorn, who lives forever, and who is the most beautiful creature in the world. Do you understand me?

Peter S. Beagle
I am the only Unicorn there is? The Last? … That cannot be. Why would I be the last? What do men know? Because they have seen no unicorns for a while does not mean we have all vanished. We do not vanish. … There has never been a time without unicorns. We live forever! We are as old as the sky, old as the moon! We can be hunted, trapped; we can even be killed if we leave our forests, but we do not vanish. … Am I truly the last?

Peter S. Beagle
How's the Angel of Death supposed to do his job with clipped wings?

Peter S. Beagle
"How can it be?" she wondered. "I suppose I could understand it if men had simply forgotten unicorns [...] But not to see them at all, to look at them and see something else — what do they look to one another, then? What do trees look like to them, or houses, or real horses, or their own children?"

Peter S. Beagle
Ah, love may be strong, but a habit is stronger, And I knew when I loved by the way I behaved.

Peter S. Beagle
I was one of the haves, and one of the secrets of being a have is not wasting your time on empathy.

Peter S. Beagle
It's a rare man who is taken for what he truly is.... There is much misjudgment in the world.... We are not always what we seem, and hardly ever what we dream.

Peter S. Beagle
No cat out of its first fur can ever be deceived by appearances. Unlike human beings, who enjoy them.

Peter S. Beagle