The Princess And The Goblin Quotes
"Her face was fair and pretty, with eyes like two bits of night sky, each with a star dissolved in the blue."
"The goblins themselves were not so far removed from the human as such a description would imply."
"The more courageous of them, however, had never yet failed in driving them away."
"The chief defence against them was verse, for they hated verse of every kind."
"A new rhyme, if of the right sort, was even more distasteful to them, and therefore more effectual in putting them to flight."
"For although there were certain old rhymes which were very effectual, yet it was well known that a new rhyme, if of the right sort, was even more distasteful to them."
"That may be; but it’s not more than I find out, you know."
"I will see you safe in the new house I’ve been digging for you for the last two months. Podge, you mind the table and chairs. I commit them to your care. The table has seven legs—each chair three. I shall require them all at your hands."
"I must talk to Lootie about it," said the king.
"Don’t speak loud to her, please, papa," said Irene. "She’s been so afraid of being late ever since! Indeed she has not been naughty. It was only a mistake for once."
"Once might be too often," murmured the king to himself, as he stroked his child’s head.
"I’m not vexed with you, my child—nor with Lootie either. But I don’t want you to say anything more to Lootie about me. If she should ask you, you must just be silent. But I do not think she will ask you."
"I follow the thread," she would answer—"just as you do in the mine."
"I see you want your tea, princess," said the nurse: "I will go and get it. The room feels close: I will open the window a little. The evening is mild: it won’t hurt you."
"There’s no fear of that, Lootie," said Irene, wishing she had put off going for the tea till it was darker, when she might have made her attempt with every advantage.
"I will tell you by and by. But first I will tell you what it is. It is spider-web—of a particular kind."
"I can’t think how you do it, mother," he would say.
"I fancy Lootie was longer in returning than she had intended; for when Irene, who had been lost in thought, looked up, she saw it was nearly dark."
"It was foolish indeed—thus to run farther and farther from all who could help her, as if she had been seeking a fit spot for the goblin creature to eat her in his leisure; but that is the way fear serves us: it always sides with the thing we are afraid of."
"You must acknowledge, however," the king said, with a little groan, "that this at least is no whim of Harelip’s, but a matter of State policy. You are well aware that his gratification comes purely from the pleasure of sacrificing himself to the public good."
"It is worth thinking of," said the king; "and I don’t know why you should be the first to suggest it, except that you have a positive genius for conquest."
"I think we had better go to bed," said the king.
"Impertinent wretch!" said the queen, with the utmost scorn in her voice.
"An impossible if," said His Majesty with dignity.
"Quite," returned Curdie, and began singing again.
"Go to bed, Goblin, do. Help the queen Take off her shoe."
"By the way, that reminds me," said the king, "that for as long as we have been married, I have never seen your feet, queen."
"Hands off!" cried the queen triumphantly. "I’m going to bed. You may come when you like. But as long as I am queen I will sleep in my shoes. It is my royal privilege."