The reason most people are bad is because they do not try to be good.” L. Frank Baum, The Emerald City of Oz, 1910

How can I help being a humbug. . .when all these people make me do things that everybody knows can’t be done?

Oh, if Shakespeare says it, that’s all right.

Courage~ What makes the flag on the mast to wave? What makes the elephant charge his tusk in the misty mist, or the dusky dusk? What makes the muskrat guard his musk? Courage! What makes...

It is such an uncomfortable feeling to know one is a fool

Perhaps it is better to be a machine that does its duty than a flesh-and-blood person who will not, for a dead truth is better than a live falsehood.

Imagination has brought mankind through the Dark Ages to its present state of civilization. Imagination led Columbus to discover America. Imagination led Franklin to discover electricity. Imagination has given us the steam engine, the telephone,...

Never give up…No one knows what’s going to happen next.

Like all bullies and marauders, Gos was a coward at heart

In the civilized countries I believe there are no witches left, nor wizards, nor sorceresses, nor magicians” ~ The Witch of the North

That proves you are unusual,’ returned the Scarecrow; ‘and I am convinced that the only people worthy of consideration in this world are the unusual ones. For the common folks are like the leaves of...

Time is given us to be happy and for no other reason […] When we waste time, we waste happiness.

People would rather live in homes regardless of its grayness. There is no place like home.

There is no place like home.

This is the way to get ideas: never to let adverse circumstances discourage you, but to believe there is a way out of every difficulty, which may be found by earnest though.

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!

I shall take the heart. For brains do not make one happy, and happiness is the best thing in the world.

Now then, Mr. Crab,” said the zebra, “here are the people I told you about; and they know more than you do, who live in a pool, and more than I do, who live in...

The queerness doesn’t matter so long as they’re friends.

All magic is unnatural, and for that reason is to be feared and avoided ~ The Scarecrow

Why, I’m not afraid to go anywhere, if the Cowardly Lion is with me,” she said. “I know him pretty well, and so I can trust him. He’s always afraid, when we get into trouble,...

How very wet this water is.

Childhood is the time of man’s greatest content. ‘Tis during these years of innocent pleasure that the little ones are most free from care. […] Their joy is in being alive, and they do not...

The cyclone had set the house down gently, very gently – for a cyclone—in the midst of a country of marvelous beauty. There were lovely patches of green sward all about, with stately trees bearing...

It’s a bird of some sort. It’s like a duck, only I never saw a duck have so many colors.”The bird swam swiftly and gracefully toward the Magic Isle, and as it drew nearer its...

You see, in this country are a number of youths who do not like to work, and the college is an excellent place for them.

No thief, however skillful, can rob one of knowledge, and that is why knowledge is the best and safest treasure to acquire.

There’s no place like home…

All the same,’ said the Scarecrow,’I shall ask for brains instead of a heart; for a fool would not know what to do with a heart if he had one.”I shall take the heart,’ returned...

I can tell the time, though, by speak-ing, and as I nev-er sleep I can wak-en you at an-y hour you wish to get up in the morn-ing.”That’s nice,’ said the little girl; ‘only I...

As a matter of fact, we are none of us above criticism; so let us bear with each other’s faults.

To ‘know Thyself’ is considered quite an accomplishment.

No matter how dreary and grey our homes are, we people of flesh and blood would rather live there than in any other country, be it ever so beautiful. There is no place like home.

Stunt dwarf or destroy the imagination of a child and you have taken away its chances of success in life. Imagination transforms the commonplace into the great and creates the new out of the old.

But you will admit that it is a very good thing to be alive.

Nobody gets in to see the wizard. Not nobody.

…and remember my sentimental friend that a heart is not judged by how much you love, but by how much you are loved by others.

Without knowing it the girl was arguing on the side of the world’s expert criminologists, who hold that to destroy an offender cannot benefit society so much as to redeem him.

Perhaps I should admit on the title page that this book is “By L. Frank Baum and his correspondents,” for I have used many suggestions conveyed to me in letters from children. Once on a...

Not willingly,” admitted the tiger. “But here is the alternative; either you transform yourself into an eye for our child, or I and my dear wife will tear you into shreds.

In this world in which we live simplicity and kindness are the only magic wands that work wonders

I think you are wrong to want a heart. It makes most people unhappy. If you only knew it, you are in luck not to have a heart.

If we walk far enough,” says Dorothy, “we shall sometime come to someplace.

For I consider brains far superior to money in every way. You may have noticed that if one has money without brains, he cannot use it to his advantage; but if one has brains without...

Everything has to come to an end, sometime.

If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own back yard. Because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with.

You have some queer friends, Dorothy,’ she said.The queerness doesn’t matter, so long as they’re friends,’ was the answer

A little misery, at times, makes one appreciate happiness more.

You have plenty of courage, I am sure,” answered Oz. “All you need is confidence in yourself. There is no living thing that is not afraid when it faces danger. The true courage is in...

In other words, the more stupid one is, the more he thinks he knows.