How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"From 2:30 to 3:30 we put off for tomorrow what we could have done today." (2.60)
This is perhaps the funniest part of the Lethargarians' schedule, in which they spend a full hour deciding what they should "have done today" and "put [it] off for tomorrow." But they don't do anything! So even if they could put something off, they have nothing to put off.
Quote #2
"When I arrived, they were determined not to make the same mistake twice and, since it seemed logical that all their children would make the sound, they named me Tock. […] My parents were so overwrought [when they realized that Tock goes 'tick'] that they gave up having any more children and devoted their lives to doing good work among the poor and hungry." (3.8)
Tock's parents attempt to use "logic," but it totally and tragically backfires on them. They try to overcorrect for a previous mistake but they just end up making everything worse. Maybe they're not so smart after all. Or maybe being logical doesn't have much to do with being smart. What do you think?
Quote #3
"I am also the judge. Now would you like a long or a short sentence?"
"A short one, if you please," said Milo.
"Good," said the judge, rapping his gavel three times. How about 'I am'? That's the shortest sentence I know." (5.21-23)
In this moment, we and Milo might feel relieved that Milo's going to get out of this jam with nothing worse than a slap on the wrist. In other words, we're all expecting a prison "sentence," but the sentence the judge gives is simply "I am." This isn't even a punishment. Clever Milo may think he's just gotten out of a jam, but the clever judge has something up his sleeve.
Quote #4
"How are you going to make it [the wagon] move? It doesn't have a – "
"Be very quiet," advised the duke, "for it goes without saying."
And, sure enough, as soon as they were all quite still, it began to move quickly through the streets, and in a very short time they arrived at the royal palace. (6.55-57)
In one of the cleverest moments in the book, the duke tells Milo how the king's cabinet uses their wagon to travel: it "goes without saying." Ha! So, the wagon doesn't need gas or manpower to run – just wordplay. It turns out that the car that "goes without saying" is author Norton Juster's "favorite [pun]" in the whole book, as he told Salon.com's Laura Miller in an interview.
Quote #5
"Do you want to ruin everything? You see, to tall men I'm a midget, and to short men I'm a giant; to the skinny ones I'm a fat man, and to the fat ones I'm a thin man. That way I can hold four jobs at once. As you can see, though, I'm neither tall nor short nor fat nor thin. In fact, I'm quite ordinary, but there are so many ordinary men that no one asks their opinion about anything. Now what is your question?" (10.33)
The man described here has built his entire identity on a clever joke. He's totally "ordinary." But, because he was ordinary, he didn't feel special. So, by putting his ordinary-ness in a variety of different contexts, he can convince different small groups that he's actually really special. It's smart, but it's also kind of sad, don't you think?
Quote #6
"Besides," growled Tock, who decided that he didn't much like Dr. Dischord, "there is no such illness as lack of noise."
"Of course not," replied the doctor, pouring himself a small glass of the liquid; "that's what makes it so difficult to cure. I only treat illnesses that don't exist: that way, if I can't cure them, there's no harm done – just one of the precautions of the trade." (11.56-57)
Dr. Dischord is both a terrible doctor and a really smart one. On the one hand, he's totally useless because, by treating nonexistent illnesses, he's not exactly saving anyone's life. But on the other hand, this way, he can't go wrong. So – is he smart? Or just incompetent? Sometimes, it seems, there's a fine line between the two.
Quote #7
"But – " he started to say, and it got no further than that. For while he was about to say that he didn't think that that was quite fair (a thought to which the obstinate Soundkeeper might not have taken kindly) he suddenly discovered the way he would carry his little sound from the fortress. In the instant between saying the word and before it sailed off into the air he had clamped his lips shut – and the "but" was trapped in his mouth, all made but not spoken. (12.104)
Milo has one of his smartest moments in the book. Problem is, it's totally by accident. Try as he might, he hasn't been able to figure out a way to "carry his little sound from the fortress" and therefore bring back a weapon the villagers can use to rescue all the other sounds. It's only when he's "about to say" something and holds it back just in time that he has the brainwave of sneaking out an almost-"spoken" word. Smart? Or just lucky?
Quote #8
"If you had high hopes, how would you know how high they were? And did you know that narrow escapes come in all different widths? Would you travel the whole wide world without ever knowing how wide it was? And how could you do anything at long last," he [the Dodecahedron] concluded, waving his arms over his head, "without knowing how long the last was? Why, numbers are the most beautiful and valuable things in the world. Just follow me and I'll show you." (14.52)
The Dodecahedron's comments here seem to suggest that words and phrases depend on numbers. All the phrases he mentions – which you'd probably have to eat if you were in Dictionopolis – are not fully comprehensible unless you can do the calculations they rely on. And to do those calculations, you need "the most beautiful and valuable things in the world": "numbers." In Digitopolis, you had better be a mathlete.
Quote #9
"Then each of you agrees that he will disagree with whatever each of you agrees with," said Milo triumphantly; "and if you both disagree with the same thing, then aren't you really in agreement?"
"I'VE BEEN TRICKED!" cried the Mathemagician helplessly, for no matter how he figured, it still came out just that way. (16.56-57)
In what might be Milo's finest moment, he does the clever thing he's been working on secretly for much of the book. He fools the Mathemagician into admitting that he really does "agree" with Azaz this one time. Although they were both agreeing by default, since they both thought they couldn't agree with each other, Milo points out that the Mathemagician and Azaz were already agreeing, because they had agreed to disagree. Phew. That was a mouthful.
Quote #10
And, in the very room in which he sat, there were books that could take you anywhere, and things to invent, and make, and build, and break, and all the puzzle and excitement of everything he didn't know – music to play, songs to sing, and worlds to imagine and then someday make real. His thoughts darted eagerly about as everything looked new – and worth trying. (20.18)
This is the breakthrough we've been waiting for the whole book. Milo realizes that he can go on a quest or adventure simply by using the power of his "thoughts." He doesn't need a magic tollbooth or other accessory to have a good time. He just needs himself. And that makes him smart on smart.