Wind In The Willows Quotes

• One does not argue about The Wind in the Willows.

  A. A. Milne

  Wind, Doe, Arguing

  Introduction to the Heritage Press edition of "The Wind in the Willows",

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• There is nothing -- absolutely nothing -- half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter, that's the charm of it. Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to do, and you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not.

  Kenneth Grahame

  Somewhere Else, Sailing, Nautical

  Kenneth Grahame (1988). “My Dearest Mouse: 'The Wind in the Willows' Letters”, Viking Press

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• Take the adventure, heed the call, now ere the irrevocable moment passes! 'Tis but a banging of the door behind you, a blithesome step forward, and you are out of your old life and into the new!

  Kenneth Grahame

  Adventure, Doors, Behind You

  Kenneth Grahame (1908). “The Wind in the Willows”, p.211

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• Here today, up and off to somewhere else tomorrow! Travel, change, interest, excitement! The whole world before you, and a horizon that's always changing!

  Kenneth Grahame

  Travel, Somewhere Else, Horizon

  Kenneth Grahame (2016). “The Wind in the Willows”, p.13, Xist Publishing

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• All this he saw, for one moment breathless and intense, vivid on the morning sky; and still, as he looked, he lived; and still, as he lived, he wondered.

  Kenneth Grahame

  Morning, Sky, Vivid

  Kenneth Grahame (1908). “The Wind in the Willows”, p.156

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• There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.

  Kenneth Grahame

  Witty, Wind, Sailing

  TheWind in theWillows ch. 1 (1908)

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• The Mole was bewitched, entranced, fascinated. By the side of the river he trotted as one trots, when very small, by the side of a man who holds one spellbound by exciting stories; and when tired at last, he sat on the bank, while the river still chattered on to him, a babbling procession of the best stories in the world, sent from the heart of the earth to be told at last to the insatiable sea.

  Kenneth Grahame

  Tired, Heart, Men

  Kenneth Grahame (2015). “Wind in the Willows (Illustrated): Children’s Classic with Original Illustrations”, p.5, e-artnow

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• Badger hates Society, and invitations, and dinner, and all that sort of thing.

  Kenneth Grahame

  Hate, Dinner, Badgers

  Kenneth Grahame (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of Kenneth Grahame (Illustrated)”, p.39, Delphi Classics

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• Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent and longing.

  Kenneth Grahame

  Spring, Moving, Dark

  Kenneth Grahame (1908). “The Wind in the Willows”, p.1

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• Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.

  Bruce Lee

  Change, Moving On, Success

  Bruce Lee (2015). “Bruce Lee: Artist of Life”, p.14, Tuttle Publishing

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• No animal, according to the rules of animal-etiquette, is ever expected to do anything strenuous, or heroic, or even moderately active during the off-season of winter.

  Kenneth Grahame

  Winter, Animal, Heroic

  Kenneth Grahame (1908). “The Wind in the Willows”, p.76

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• After all, the best part of a holiday is perhaps not so much to be resting yourself, as to see all the other fellows busy working.

  Kenneth Grahame

  Holiday, Vacation, Busy

  Kenneth Grahame (2016). “The Wind in the Willows”, p.5, Xist Publishing

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• Toad talked big about all he was going to do in the days to come, while stars grew fuller and larger all around them, and a yellow moon, appearing suddenly and silently from nowhere in particular, came to keep them company and listen to their talk.

  Kenneth Grahame

  Stars, Moon, Yellow

  Kenneth Grahame (1914). “The Wind in the Willows”, p.17, Hayes Barton Press

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• The willow submits to the wind and prospers until one day it is many willows - a wall against the wind.

  Frank Herbert

  Wall, Wind, One Day

  Frank Herbert (2003). “Dune”, p.31, Penguin

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• There he got out the luncheon-basket and packed a simple meal, in which, remembering the stranger's origin and preferences, he took care to include a yard of long French bread, a sausage out of which the garlic sang, some cheese which lay down and cried, and a long-necked straw-covered flask wherein lay bottled sunshine shed and garnered on far Southern slopes.

  Kenneth Grahame

  Sunshine, Simple, Long

  Kenneth Grahame (1908). “The Wind in the Willows”, p.206

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• Beyond the Wild Wood comes the wild world,"said the Rat."And that's something that doesn't matter, either to you or to me. I've never been there, and I'm never going' nor you either, if you've got any sense at all.

  Kenneth Grahame

  Wild World, Woods, Rats

  Kenneth Grahame (2008). “The wind in the willows”

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• Home! That was what they meant, those caressing appeals, Those soft touches wafted through the air, those invisible little hands pulling and tugging, all one way.

  Kenneth Grahame

  Home, Air, Hands

  Kenneth Grahame (2012). “The Wind in the Willows: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)”, p.50, Penguin

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• "Glorious, stirring sight!" murmured Toad. . . . "The poetry of motion! The real way to travel! The only way to travel! Here today - in next week tomorrow! Villages skipped, towns and cities jumped- always somebody else's horizons! O bliss! O poop-poop! O my! O my!"

  Kenneth Grahame

  Real, Sight, Next Week

  'The Wind in the Willows' (1908) ch. 2.

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• But Mole stood still a moment, held in thought. As one wakened suddenly from a beautiful dream, who struggles to recall it, but can recapture nothing but a dim sense of the beauty in it, the beauty! Till that, too, fades away in its turn, and the dreamer bitterly accepts the hard, cold waking and all its penalties.

  Kenneth Grahame

  Beautiful, Dream, Struggle

  Kenneth Grahame (2012). “The Wind in the Willows: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)”, p.73, Penguin

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• All along the backwater,
  Through the rushes tall,
  Ducks are a-dabbling,
  Up tails all!

  Kenneth Grahame

  Ducks, Tails, Tall

  Kenneth Grahame (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of Kenneth Grahame (Illustrated)”, p.28, Delphi Classics

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• Question four: What book would you give to every child? Answer: I wouldn't give them a book. Books are part of the problem: this strange belief that a tree has nothing to say until it is murdered, its flesh pulped, and then (human) people stain this flesh with words. I would take children outside and put them face to face with chipmunks, dragonflies, tadpoles, hummingbirds, stones, rivers, trees, crawdads. That said, if you're going to force me to give them a book, it would be The Wind In The Willows, which I hope would remind them to go outside.

  Derrick Jensen

  Children, Book, Wind

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• It takes all sorts to make a world - saints as well as soldiers.

  Anthony Anderson

  History, Soldier, Historical

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• Then suddenly the Mole felt a great Awe fall upon him, an awe that turned his muscles to water, bowed his head, and rooted his feet to the ground. It was no panic terror - indeed he felt wonderfully at peace and happy - but it was an awe that smote and held him and, without seeing, he knew it could only mean that some august presence was very, very near.

  Kenneth Grahame

  Fall, Mean, August

  Kenneth Grahame (2012). “The Wind in the Willows: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)”, p.71, Penguin

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• Mum had done everything you need to educate a kid. She made me a kid who likes books and she told me about 'Wind in the Willows' and read it and I thought this is weird, Rat, Mole, Toad and my first ever Bolshie thought - you know about 'The Wind in the Willows.'

  Terry Pratchett

  Book, Kids, Wind

  "Sir Terry Pratchett: hallucinating gently for a living". Interview with Corinne Podger, www.abc.net.au. April 30, 2011.

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• I loved The Wind in the Willows. ... Walt Disney should be sued for cheapening it as he did. Imagine it, Mickey Mousing all those nice characters. I'm surprised he didn't do it with the New Testament.

  Tasha Tudor

  Movie, Nice, Character

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