Roald Dahl Quotes
30 quotes
Roald Dahl
Beloved British author of imaginative children's books and dark short stories.
30 Quotes
It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye
— The Little Prince, Chapter 21
Stories are wild creatures. When you let them loose, who knows what havoc they might wreak
— A Monster Calls
Fantasy is hardly an escape from reality. It's a way of understanding it
— The Horn Book Magazine, 1968
The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination
— Attributed; earliest sources from the 1920s and 1930s
Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere
— Attributed in interviews (1929), various sources
If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales
— Attributed (various interviews), early 20th century
There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds
— The Coloured Lands (1928)
And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places
— The Minpins (1991)
Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them
— The Little Prince, Chapter 1
Children see magic because they look for it
— Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal (2002)
There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island
— Speech, Disneyland’s dedication, 1955
Blessed are the hearts that can bend; they shall never be broken
— Notebooks, 1935-1942
To read a poem in January is as lovely as to go for a walk in June
— Situations II
You can never be overdressed or overeducated
— Attributed, various sources
A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children's story in the slightest
— Of Other Worlds: Essays and Stories (1966)
The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless
— Emile, or On Education (1762)
Stories you read when you're the right age never quite leave you
— Speech at The Reading Agency, 2013
Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten
— Often attributed, published in various essays (also popularized by Neil Gaiman)
Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up
— Often cited in interviews, c. 1964
Stories are the wildest things of all. Stories chase and bite and hunt
— A Monster Calls (2011)
It is only when we are aware of the earth and of the earth as poetry that we truly live
— The Outermost House (1928)
Those who don't believe in magic will never find it
— The Minpins (1991)
Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic
— Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2007)
Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world
— What Life Means to Einstein (Interview, 1929)
The universe is made of stories, not atoms
— The Speed of Darkness, 1968
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars
— Lady Windermere's Fan (Act III)
To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else
— Letter to Thomas Wentworth Higginson, June 1869
There is no surer foundation for a beautiful friendship than a mutual taste in literature
— Strychnine in the Soup
All grown-ups were once children... but only few of them remember it
— The Little Prince (1943)
If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales
— . Attributed in interviews and correspondence, c. 1950s.