How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"As you can see, that leaves almost no time for brooding, lagging, plodding, or procrastinating, and if we stopped to think or laugh, we'd never get nothing done."
"You mean you'd never get anything done," corrected Milo.
"We don't want to get anything done," snapped another angrily; "we want to get nothing done, and we can do that without your help." (2.65-67)
If you look more closely at this first statement, like Milo does, you might think the Lethargarians are making a grammatical mistake by saying, "we'd never get nothing done." But they're not. They do want to get nothing done. In the Doldrums, the point is to do as little as possible, and the Lethargarians fill up their schedules quite carefully to make sure that's exactly what happens. Every possible minute must be wasted. How does this work out for them?
Quote #2
Milo's eyes opened wide, for there in front of him was a large dog with a perfectly normal head, four feet, and a tail – and the body of a loudly ticking alarm clock.
"What are you doing here?" growled the watchdog. (2.81-82)
This character is a walking pun. He's a watchdog (as in a guard dog), and a dog with a giant watch inside of him. Like a watch, he tells you what time it is. Like a watchdog, he keeps track of how other people are using time and polices them to make sure they do so properly.
Quote #3
"You see," he [Tock] continued, beginning to feel better, "once there was no time at all, and people found it very inconvenient. They never knew whether they were eating lunch or dinner, and they were always missing trains. So time was invented to help them keep track of the day and get places where they should. […] [I]t seemed as if there was much more [time] than could ever be used. […] People wasted it and even gave it away. Then we were given the job of seeing that no one wasted time again". (3.11)
Shmoop wonders how in the world you could even build a train, or a train station without time. Wouldn't all those construction workers just show up whenever they wanted and never get anything done? Despite how crazy this quotation sounds, it poses an interesting question: has time always existed? Or did we humans invent it? We'll give you a minute (or a day) for that whopper of a question to sink in.
Quote #4
One by one, the hours passed, and at exactly 5:22 (by Tock's very accurate clock) Milo carefully opened one eye and, in a moment, the other. Everything was still purple, dark blue, and black, yet scarcely a minute remained to the long, quiet night. (11.1)
So is Tock a dog or a clock? How in the world can he be both?
Quote #5
At last the exhausted Milo, afraid to call for help and on the verge of tears, dropped his hands to his sides. The orchestra stopped. The colors disappeared, and once again it was night. The time was 5:27 A.M. (11.15)
Milo's botched attempt at conducting the sunrise lasts exactly a week and five minutes. Time seems very precise around these parts. Why do you think that is?
Quote #6
When they had all been safely started, the very pleasant man returned to the tree and, leaning against it once more, continued to stare vacantly down the trail, while Milo, Tock, and the Humbug worked hour after hour after hour after hour after hour after hour after hour after hour after hour after hour after hour after hour after hour after hour after hour after hour after hour after hour after hour after hour after hour – (16.116)
You know what Shmoop loves about this quote? You can literally feel the boring repetitiveness of the jobs that the "very pleasant man" gives Milo and the others. We see the hours passing by just as the characters do. Seriously, read this quote aloud and see how long it takes you. You'll be exhausted by the end. Take it from Shmoop – we tried it!
Quote #7
"Then why bother?" asked Tock, whose alarm suddenly began to ring. (17.13)
This moment reminds us of Tock's watchdog side. He's protecting time, sure, but he's also protecting his friends. His alarm could be used to remind people to get up (etc.), but here it functions like a proper "alarm" (like a fire alarm), warning the others of danger. Tock's a pretty handy guy to have around.
Quote #8
"Think of all the trouble it saves," the man explained, and his face looked as if he'd be grinning an evil grin – if he could grin at all. "If you only do the easy and useless jobs, you'll never have to worry about the important ones which are so difficult. You just won't have the time. For there's always something to do to keep you from what you really should be doing, and if it weren't for that dreadful magic staff, you'd never know how much time you were wasting." (17.20)
The demon's mantra goes against everything Tock stands for. The demon's purpose is "wasting" time, but that's precisely what Tock's supposed to guard against. So it makes sense that this guy ends up being really dangerous. Tock's main job in life is figuring out when people are wasting time and keeping them from doing so. But he's fooled by the demon and doesn't realize that the tasks the demon provides are precisely designed to waste time.
Quote #9
"Well, time flies, doesn't it?" asked Milo.
"On many occasions," barked Tock, jumping eagerly to his feet. "I'll take everyone down." (18.72-73)
Here's another instance where wordplay saves lives. We don't usually mean the expression "time flies" literally. It's an expression people use to emphasize that things are happening more quickly than they expected. But Tock represents time, and he lives in a place where figures of speech continually come true. So, as Time's representative, Tock can actually fly. Awesome.
Quote #10
King Azaz and the Mathemagician pledged that every year at this same time they would lead their armies to the Mountains of Ignorance until not one demon remained, and everyone agreed that no finer carnival for no finer reason had ever been held in Wisdom.
But even things as fine as all that must end sometime, and late on the afternoon of the third day the tents were struck, the pavilions were folded, and everything was packed ready to leave. (19.63-64)
You might think that in a fantasyland, celebrations could last and last, but there's a time for revelry, and a time for getting back to work. Even in the Lands Beyond, people can't party forever. The narrator tells us that "even things as fine as all that must end sometime." If they never ended, maybe they wouldn't be as special. Maybe they'd even be – dare we say – a waste of time.