Quotes from the Chronicles of Narnia

compiled by Joshua Parks

Queen Aravis of Archenland

“And what business is it of yours if I am only a girl? You’re probably only a boy: a rude, common little boy- a slave probably, who’s stolen his master’s horse.”

“Shasta- I mean Cor. No, shut up. There’s something I’ve got to say at once. I’m sorry I’ve been such a pig. But I did change before I knew you were a Prince, honestly I did; when you went back, and faced the Lion.

Aslan, the Great Lion“Narnia, Narnia, Narnia, awake. Love. Think. Speak. Be walking trees. Be talking beasts. Be divine waters.”

“Rise up, Sir Peter Wolf’s-Bane. And, whatever happens, never forget to wipe your sword.”

“I tell no one any story but his own.”

"But there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there."

continued

"I have swallowed up girls and boys, women and men, kings and emperors, cities and realms.""You would not have called to me unless I had been calling to you.""Now it is time! Time! TIME.""Come further in! Come further up!""The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning."

Breehy-hinny-brinny-hoohy-ha

"Oh the sweet air of Narnia! An hour's life there is better than a thousand years in Calormen.""We're free Narnians, Hwin and I, and I suppose, if you're running away to Narnia, you want to be one too. In that case Hwin isn't your horse any longer. One might just as well say you're her human.""Narnia and the North!""Aslan, I'm afraid I must be rather a fool.""Do Talking Horses roll?"

King Caspian of Narnia

"And finally, if your Lordship will give me a sword I will prove on any man's body in clean battle that I am Caspian the son of Caspian, lawful King of Narnia, Lord of Cair Paravel, and Emperor of the Lone Islands.""No, Reepicheep, you are not to attempt a single combat with it. And unless you promise to obey me in this matter I'll have you tied up."

continued

"Be careful, Lucy. It's a very clever dragon but it may be a liar."

"Do you mean to say that you three come from a round world (round like a ball) and you've never told me!""Sir, I've always wanted to have just one glimpse of their world. Is that wrong?"

Prince Corin of Archenland

"I say: we ought to be able to get some fun out of this being mistaken for one another.""A boy in the street made a beastly joke about Queen Susan, so I knocked him down.""Does it ever get caught on a hook halfway?"

Dr. Cornelius

"Listen. All you have heard about Old Narnia is true. It is not the land of Men. It is the country of Aslan, the country of the Waking Trees and Visible Naiads, of Fauns and Satyrs, of Dwarfs and Giants, of the gods and the Centaurs, of Talking Beasts. It was against these that the first Caspian fought."

continued

"That is the greatest and most sacred treasure of Narnia. Many terrors I endured, many spells did I utter, to find it, when I was still young. It is the magic horn of Queen Susan herself which she left behind her when she vanished from Narnia at the end of the Golden Age."

Professor Digory Kirke

"And I suppose you've sent Polly into it then. And all I can say, even if you are my Uncle—is that you've behaved like a coward, sending a girl to a place you're afraid to go to yourself.""I saw it begin. I did not think I would live to see it die.""When Aslan said you could never go back to Narnia, he meant the Narnia you were thinking of. But that was not the real Narnia. That had a beginning and an end."

continued

"Logic! Why don’t they teach logic at these schools? There are only three possibilities. Either your sister is telling lies, or she is mad, or she is telling the truth. You know she doesn’t tell lies and it is obvious that she is not mad. For the moment then and unless any further evidence turns up, we must assume that she is telling the truth.”

King Edmund the Just

"When I’m King of Narnia the first thing I shall do will be to make decent roads.""But even a traitor may mend. I have known one that did.""That’s the worst of girls. They never carry a map in their heads.""Bother! I’ve left my new torch in Narnia!"

Eustace Clarence Scrubb

"I see. As usual. Been enjoying yourself somewhere while the rest of us were prisoners. I suppose you haven't even found out about the British Consul. Of course not.""Great Scott! Well I'm—jiggered. I was jolly angry with you a moment ago, and I still think it was mean of you to sneak off without the rest of us: but I must admit—well, I mean to say—well it was a perfectly gorgeous thing to do. If she was a boy she'd have to be knighted, wouldn't she, Sire?"

Hwin the Mare

"This is my escape just as much as it is yours.""I know it's not a very good plan, but I think it's our only chance." "I feel just like Bree that I can't go on. But when Horses have humans (with spurs and things) on their backs, aren't they often made to go on when they're feeling like this? And then they find they can. I m-mean—oughtn't we able to do more even, now that we're free? It's all for Narnia."

Jadis, the White Witch

"Who has awaked me? Who has broken the spell?""You must learn, child, that what would be wrong for you or for any of the common people is not wrong in a great Queen such as I. The weight of the world is on our shoulders. We must be freed from all rules. Ours is a high and lonely destiny.""Dog, unhand our royal charger. We are the Empress Jadis."

continued

"I see we are in a large city. Procure for me at once a chariot or a flying carpet or a well-trained dragon, or whatever is usual for royal and noble persons in your land.""Not know the Queen of Narnia? Ha! You shall know us better hereafter.""I see you are an idiot, whatever else you may be. Answer me, once and for all, or I shall lose my patience. Are you human?"

continued, again"If either of you mention that name again, he shall instantly be killed.""You know that every traitor belongs to me as my lawful prey and that for every treachery I have a right to a kill... And so, that human creature is mine. His life is forfeit to me. His blood is my property."

"Understand that you have given me Narnia forever, you have lost your own life and you have not saved his. In that knowledge, despair and die."

Jill Pole

"Oh, come on! Bother the signs. Something about someone mentioning Aslan's name, I think. But I'm jolly well not going to give a recitation here.""It's my fault. I—I'd given up repeating the signs every night. If I'd been thinking about them I could have seen it was the city, even in all that snow.""Even if I can't stop blubbing, I won't get my string wet."

The Lady of the Green Kirtle

"Good day, t-r-r-avellers. Some of you are young pilgrams to walk this rough waste.""There is no Narnia, no Overworld, no sky, no sun, no Aslan. And now, to bed all. And let us begin a wiser life tomorrow. But first, to bed; to sleep; deep sleep, soft pillows, sleep without foolish dreams."

"What are you doing? Dare to touch my fire again, mud-filth, and I'll turn the blood to fire inside your veins."

Queen Lucy the Valiant"This must be a simply enormous wardrobe!""I think—I don't know—but I think I could be brave enough.""Aslan, Aslan, if ever you loved us at all, send us help now.""In our world too, a Stable once had something inside it that was bigger than our whole world."

"I've felt for hours that there was some wonderful mystery hanging over this place."

“King” Miraz

"You're getting too old for that sort of stuff. At your age you ought to be thinking of battles and adventures, not fairy tales.""Are you trying, to make it appear that I am as great a coward as your Lordship?"

Mr. Beaver

"They say Aslan is on the move—perhaps has already landed."

"Safe? Don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you."

"He’ll often drop in. Only you mustn’t press him. He’s wild,' you know. Not like a tame lion."

Mrs. Beaver

"So you've come at last! At last! To think that ever I should live to see this day!”

"If there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they're either braver than most or else just silly."

"Well, I'm nearly ready now. I suppose the sewing machine's too heavy to bring?

Nikabrik

"You two think you've done it a great kindess by not letting me kill it. But I suppose the upshot is that we have to keep it a prisoner for life. I'm certainly not going to let it go alive—to go back to its own kind and betray us all.""Pah! A renegade Dwarf. A half-and-halfer! Shall I pass my sword through its throat?""I won't go. With all these Humans and beasts about, there must be a Dwarf here to see that the Dwarfs are fairly treated."

King Peter the Magnificent

"But do you really mean, sir, that there could be other worlds—all over the place, just around the corner—like that?""I'm longing to see him even if I do feel frightened when it comes to the point.""It is my sword Rhindon. With it I killed the Wolf.""I haven't come to take your place, you know, but to put you into it.""Begone, Monster, and take your lawful prey to your own place: in the name of Aslan and Aslan's great Father the Emperor-over-the-Sea."

Polly Plummer

"I'm game if you are.""I wonder did we ever really meet before? I had a sort of idea—a sort of picture in my head—of a boy and a girl, like us—living somewhere quite different—and doing all sorts of things.""It's a good thing one of us has some sense.""How exactly like a man! And don't say I'm just like a woman, or you'll be a beastly copy-cat."

continued

"Oh nothing of course. Only nearly screwed my wrist off in that room with all the waxworks, like a cowardly bully. Only struck the bell with the hammer, like a silly idiot. Only turned back in the wood so that she had time to catch hold of you before we jumped into our own pool. That's all.""I don't suppose they're anywhere yet. I mean, there's no one there, and nothing happening. The world only began today."

Puddleglum

"Puddleglum's my name. But it doesn't matter if you forget it. I can always tell you again.""I'm on Aslan's side even if there isn't any Aslan to lead it. I'm going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn't any Narnia.""And you must always remember there's one good thing about being trapped down here: It'll save funeral expenses."

Reepicheep, Chief Mouse

"Sire, my life is ever at your command, but my honour is my own.""When I was in my cradle, a wood woman, a Dryad, spoke this verse over me: 'Where sky and water meet, Where the waves grow sweet, Doubt not, Reepicheep, To find all you seek, There is the utter East.' I do not know what it means. But the spell of it has been on me all my life.""Welcome, in the Lion's name. Come further up and further in."

King Rilian the Disenchanted

"If you were not so young a warrior, Boy, you and I must have fought to the death on this quarrel. I can hear no words against my Lady's honour.""But fie on gravity! Is it not the most comical and ridiculous thing in the world to think of them all going about their business and never dreaming that under their peaceful fields and floors, only a fathom down, there is a great army ready to break out upon them like a fountain!"

continued

"Courage, friends. Whether we live or die Aslan will be our good lord."

King Cor of Archenland

"I wish you could talk, old fellow.""Look here, Aravis, I do hope you won't think I'm got up like this (and the trumpeter and all) to try to impress you or make out that I'm different or any rot of that sort.""I do think that I must be the most unfortunate boy that ever lived in the whole world."

Queen Susan the Gentle

"Is he—quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.""Who's done it? What does it mean? Is it more magic?"What wonderful memories you have! Fancy your still thinking about all those funny games we used to play when we were children."

Trufflehunter

"We don't forget. I believe in the High King Peter and the rest that reigned at Cair Paravel, as firmly as I believe in Aslan himself.""I stand by Aslan. Have patience, like us beasts. The help will come. It may be even now at the door.""We should not have Aslan for a friend if we brought in that rabble."

Trumpkin

"Bulbs and bolsters! Nikabrik. Why need you talk so unhandsomely? It isn't the creature's fault that it bashed its head against a tree outside our hole.""And I said to myself, 'If that's not the Horn, call me a rabbit.'""What's that? The girls are all killed! I don't believe a word of it. What girls? Who killed 'em?"Thimbles and thunderstorms! Is that how you speak to the King?"

Tumnus

"Excuse me—I don't want to be inquisitive—but should I be right in thinking that you are a Daughter of Eve?""This is the land of Narnia, where we are now; all that lies between the lamp-post and the great castle of Cair Paravel on the eastern sea.""Daughter of Eve from the far land of Spare Oom where eternal summer reigns around the bright city of War Drobe, how would it be if you came and had tea with me?"

continued"Don't speak to me, don't speak to me. I'm thinking. I'm thinking so that I can hardly breathe.""The further up and the further in you go, the bigger everything gets. The inside is larger than the outside."

"Would you believe that I'm the sort of Faun to meet a poor innocent child in the wood, one that had never done me any harm, and pretend to be friendly with it, and invite it home to my cave, all for the sake of lulling it asleep and then handing it over to the White Witch?"

Uncle Andrew Ketterly

"But of course you must understand that rules of that sort, however excellent they may be for little boys—and servants—and women—and even people in general, can't possibly be expected to apply to profound students and great thinkers and sages. No, Digory. Men like me, who possess hidden wisdom, are freed from common rules just as we are cut off from common pleasures. Ours, my boy, is a high and lonely destiny."

continued

"In fact, Digory, you are now talking to the last man (possibly) who really had a fairy godmother. There! That'll be something for you to remember when you are an old man yourself.""Congratulate me, my dear boy. My experiment has succeeded. The little girl's gone—vanished—right out of the world.""It is a shock when you first see someone vanish. Why, it gave even me a turn when the guinea-pig did it the other night."