33 Roald Dahl Quotes That Will Inspire You To Live Like A Kid Again
1. “A little nonsense now and then, is relished by the wisest men.”
—Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
2. “Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.”
—The Minpins
3. “A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.”
—The Twits
4. “Don’t gobblefunk around with words.”
—The BFG
5. “So please, oh please, we beg, we pray
Go throw your TV set away
And in its place you can install
A lovely bookshelf on the wall…”
—Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
6. “Never do anything by halves if you want to get away with it. Be outrageous. Go the whole hog.”
—Matilda
7. “It doesn’t matter who you are or what you look like, so long as somebody loves you.”
—The Witches
8. “We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams.”
—Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
9. “Grown ups are complicated creatures, full of quirks and secrets.”
10. “So Matilda’s strong young mind continued to grow, nurtured by the voices of all those authors who had sent their books out into the world like ships on the sea. These books gave Matilda a hopeful and comforting message: You are not alone.”
—Matilda
11. “I understand what you’re saying, and your comments are valuable, but I’m gonna ignore your advice.”
—Fantastic Mr Fox
12. “I began to realize how important it was to be an enthusiast in life. He taught me that if you are interested in something, no matter what it is, go at it at full speed ahead. Embrace it with both arms, hug it, love it, and above all become passionate about it. Lukewarm is no good. Hot is no good either. White hot and passionate is the only thing to be.”
—My Uncle Oswald
13. “Mr. Wonka: ‘Don’t forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he wanted.’
Charlie Bucket: ‘What happened?’
Mr. Wonka: ‘He lived happily ever after.'”
—Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
14. “‘We must hurry!’ said Mr. Wonka. ‘We have so much time and so little to do! No! Wait! Strike that! Reverse it!’”
—Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
15. “The witching hour, somebody had once whispered to her, was a special moment in the middle of the night when every child and every grown-up was in a deep deep sleep, and all the dark things came out from hiding and had the world all to themselves.”
—The BFG
16. “You should never, never doubt something that no one is sure of.”
—Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
17. “It’s a funny thing about mothers and fathers. Even when their own child is the most disgusting little blister you could ever imagine, they still think that he or she is wonderful.”
—Matilda
18. “I was glad my father was an eye-smiler. It meant he never gave me a fake smile because it’s impossible to make your eyes twinkle if you aren’t feeling twinkly yourself. A mouth-smile is different. You can fake a mouth-smile any time you want, simply by moving your lips. I’ve also learned that a real mouth-smile always has an eye-smile to go with it. So watch out, I say, when someone smiles at you but his eyes stay the same. It’s sure to be a phony.”
―Danny the Champion of the World
19. “If you are good, life is good.”
—Matilda
20. “Having power is not nearly as important as what you choose to do with it.”
21. “Somewhere inside all of us is the power to change the world.”
22. “A BOOK?! WHAT D’YOU WANNA FLAMING BOOK FOR?…WE’VE GOT A LOVELY TELLY WITH A 12-INCH SCREEN AND NOW YA WANNA BOOK!”
—Matilda
23. “Nowadays you can go anywhere in the world in a few hours, and nothing is fabulous any more.”
24. “All the reading she had done had given her a view of life that they had never seen.”
—Matilda
25. “Bunkum and tummyrot! You’ll never get anywhere if you go about what-iffing like that. Would Columbus have discovered America if he’d said ‘What if I sink on the way over? What if I meet pirates? What if I never come back?’ He wouldn’t even have started.”
26. “And don’t worry about the bits you can’t understand. Sit back and allow the words to wash around you, like music.”
—Matilda
27. “I think I have this thing where everybody has to think I’m the greatest. And if they aren’t completely knocked out and dazzled and slightly intimidated by me, I don’t feel good about myself.”
—Fantastic Mr Fox
28. “I have found it impossible to talk to anyone about my problems. I couldn’t face the embarrassment, and anyway I lack the courage. Any courage I had was knocked out of me when I was young. But now, all of sudden I have a sort of desperate wish to tell everything to somebody.”
—Matilda
29. “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.”
―The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More
30. “If you are going to get anywhere in life you have to read a lot of books.”
31. “I like enthusiasts of any kind.”
—My Year
32. “I’m afraid men are not always quite as clever as they think they are. You will learn that when you get a bit older, my girl.”
—Matilda
33. “Mice, I felt pretty certain, all like each other. People don’t.”
—The Witches 
