Roald Dahl Quotes

91 Sourced Quotes

A little nonsense now and then, is cherished by the wisest men.

Roald Dahl
A person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation is absolute freedom.

Roald Dahl
I shot down some German planes and I got shot down myself, crashing in a burst of flames and crawling out, getting rescued by brave soldiers.

Roald Dahl
When I walked to school in the mornings I would start out alone but would pick up four other boys along the way. We would set out together after school across the village green.

Roald Dahl
So, please, oh please, we beg, we pray, go throw your TV set away, and in its place you can install, a lovely bookcase on the wall.

Roald Dahl
Some people when they have taken too much and have been driven beyond the point of endurance, simply crumble and give up. There are others, though they are not many, who will for some reason always be unconquerable. You meet them in time of war and also in time of peace. They have an indomitable spirit and nothing, neither pain nor torture nor threat of death, will cause them to give up.

Roald Dahl
The walls were wet and sticky, and peach juice was dripping from the ceiling. James opened his mouth and caught some of it on his tongue. It tasted delicious.

Roald Dahl
The secret of life', he said, 'is to become very very good at somethin' that's very very 'ard to do.

Roald Dahl
I was already beginning to realize that the only way to conduct oneself in a situation where bombs rained down and bullets whizzed past, was to accept the dangers and all the consequences as calmly as possible. Fretting and sweating about it all was not going to help.

Roald Dahl
Poor Earthworm,' the Ladybird said, whispering in James's ear. 'He loves to make everything into a disaster. He hates to be happy. He is only happy when he is gloomy.

Roald Dahl
We have so much time and so little to do. Strike that, reverse it.

Roald Dahl
And when he put his mind to it, he could make his words coil themselves around and around the listener until they held her in some sort of a mild hypnotic spell.

Roald Dahl
All you do is to look / At a page in this book / Because that's where we always will be. / No book ever ends / When it's full of your friends / The Giraffe and the Pelly and me.

Roald Dahl
Well, first of all," said the BFG, "human beans is not really believing in giants, is they? Human beans is not thinking we exist.

Roald Dahl
Little Billy's mother was always telling him exactly what he was allowed to do and what he was not allowed to do. All the things he was allowed to do were boring. All the things he was not allowed to do were exciting. One of the things he NEVER NEVER was allowed to do, the most exciting of them all, was to go out through the garden gate all by himself and explore the world beyond.

Roald Dahl
If you are going to get anywhere in life you have to read a lot of books.

Roald Dahl
A life is made up of a great number of small incidents, and a small number of great ones.

Roald Dahl
I've always said to myself that if a little pocket calculator can do it why shouldn't I?

Roald Dahl
My dear young fellow,' the Old-Green-Grasshopper said gently, 'there are a whole lot of things in this world of ours you haven't started wondering about yet.

Roald Dahl
But it is impossible to replace a person one has loved with distractions.

Roald Dahl
There is something about very cold weather that gives one an enormous appetite. Most of us find ourselves beginning to crave rich steaming stews and hot apple pies and all kinds of delicious warming dishes; and because we are all a great deal luckier than we realize, we usually get what we want—or near enough.

Roald Dahl
What a fortunate fellow I am, I kept telling myself. Nobody has ever had such a lovely time as this!

Roald Dahl
Homesickness is a bit like seasickness. You don't know how awful it is unti you get it, and when you do, it hits you right in the top of the stomach and you want to die.

Roald Dahl
But there was one other thing that the grown-ups also knew, and it was this: that however small the chance might be of striking lucky, the chance is there. The chance had to be there.

Roald Dahl
A Message to Children Who Have Read This Book - When you grow up and have children of your own, do please remember something important: a stodgy parent is no fun at all. What a child wants and deserves is a parent who is SPARKY.

Roald Dahl