88 Roald Dahl Quotes: Whimsical Lines of Pure Magic

Whether you are hunting for a bedtime-story line, a classroom poster quote, or simply the wisest nonsense ever written, you will find it here. Every line below is a genuine Roald Dahl line, kept short and presented with the book it comes from.

Roald Dahl (1916–1990) wrote some of the best-loved children’s books of all time, and his words still sparkle for grown-ups too.

Matilda Magic

1. Never do anything by halves if you want to get away with it. Be outrageous. Go the whole hog. — Roald Dahl, Matilda
2. If you are good life is good. — Roald Dahl, Matilda
3. Somewhere inside all of us is the power to change the world. — Roald Dahl, Matilda
4. So Matilda’s strong young mind continued to grow, nurtured by the voices of all those authors who had sent their books out into the world like ships on the sea. — Roald Dahl, Matilda
5. The books transported her into new worlds and introduced her to amazing people who lived exciting lives. — Roald Dahl, Matilda
6. All the reading she had done had given her a view of life that they had never seen. — Roald Dahl, Matilda
7. It’s a funny thing about mothers and fathers. Even when their own child is the most disgusting little blister you could ever imagine, they still think that he or she is wonderful. — Roald Dahl, Matilda
8. I’m right and you’re wrong, I’m big and you’re small, and there’s nothing you can do about it. — Roald Dahl, Matilda
9. There is little point in teaching anything backwards. The whole object of life, Headmistress, is to go forwards. — Roald Dahl, Matilda
10. Don’t worry about the bits you can’t understand. Sit back and allow the words to wash around you, like music. — Roald Dahl, Matilda
11. I’m wondering what to read next. I’ve finished all the children’s books. — Roald Dahl, Matilda
12. These books gave Matilda a hopeful and comforting message: You are not alone. — Roald Dahl, Matilda
13. Having power is not nearly as important as what you choose to do with it. — Roald Dahl, Matilda
14. Children are not so serious as grown-ups and they love to laugh. — Roald Dahl, Matilda
15. The human brain is an amazing thing. — Roald Dahl, Matilda
16. Being very small and very young, the only power Matilda had over anyone in her family was brain-power. — Roald Dahl, Matilda
17. I cannot for the life of me understand why small children take so long to grow up. — Roald Dahl, Matilda
18. I’m afraid men are not always quite as clever as they think they are. — Roald Dahl, Matilda
19. Make sure everything you do is so completely crazy it’s unbelievable. — Roald Dahl, Matilda
20. What she needed was just one person, one wise and sympathetic grown-up who could help her. — Roald Dahl, Matilda
21. The only sensible thing to do when you are attacked is, as Napoleon once said, to counter-attack. — Roald Dahl, Matilda

The BFG’s Gobblefunk

1. Don’t gobblefunk around with words. — Roald Dahl, The BFG
2. Two rights don’t equal a left. — Roald Dahl, The BFG
3. What I mean and what I say is two different things. — Roald Dahl, The BFG
4. Words is oh such a twitch-tickling problem to me all my life. — Roald Dahl, The BFG
5. We is having an interesting babblement about the taste of the human bean. — Roald Dahl, The BFG
6. Meanings is not important. I cannot be right all the time. Quite often I is left instead of right. — Roald Dahl, The BFG
7. The matter with human beans is that they is absolutely refusing to believe in anything unless they is actually seeing it right in front of their own schnozzles. — Roald Dahl, The BFG
8. Dreams is full of mystery and magic. Do not try to understand them. — Roald Dahl, The BFG
9. We is in Dream Country. This is where all dreams is beginning. — Roald Dahl, The BFG
10. Human beans is the only animals that is killing their own kind. — Roald Dahl, The BFG
11. I think I has a plan! — Roald Dahl, The BFG

Chocolate Factory Wonders

1. A little nonsense now and then, is relished by the wisest men. — Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator
2. So please, oh please, we beg, we pray, go throw your TV set away, and in its place you can install a lovely bookshelf on the wall. — Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
3. You should never, never doubt something that no one is sure of. — Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
4. I’ve heard tell that what you imagine sometimes comes true. — Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
5. However small the chance might be of striking lucky, the chance was there. — Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
6. We are all a great deal luckier than we realize, we usually get what we want – or near enough. — Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
7. So shines a good deed in a weary world. — Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
8. You’ll never get anywhere if you go about what-iffing like that. — Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
9. A little magic can take you a long way. — Roald Dahl, James and the Giant Peach
10. Anyone can ask questions. It’s the answers that count. — Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator
11. It was an unhappy truth that nearly all people in the world behave badly when there is something really big at stake. — Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator
12. There’s someone over there needs a helping hand and it’s our job to give it. — Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator
13. Poppyrot and pigwash! — Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator
14. We have so much time and so little to do. Strike that, reverse it. — Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator

Witches & Wisdom

1. It doesn’t matter who you are or what you look like, so long as somebody loves you. — Roald Dahl, The Witches
2. REAL WITCHES dress in ordinary clothes and look very much like ordinary women. — Roald Dahl, The Witches
3. A witch never gets caught. Don’t forget that she has magic in her fingers and devilry dancing in her blood. — Roald Dahl, The Witches
4. But this is not a fairy-tale. This is about REAL WITCHES. — Roald Dahl, The Witches
5. My grandmother was the only grandmother I ever met who smoked cigars. — Roald Dahl, The Witches
6. A witch is always a woman. — Roald Dahl, The Witches
7. You are still yourself in everything except your appearance. — Roald Dahl, The Witches
8. It is most unlikely. But – here comes the big ‘but’ – not impossible. — Roald Dahl, The Witches
9. Children should never have baths. It’s a dangerous habit. — Roald Dahl, The Witches
10. A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. — Roald Dahl, The Twits
11. No one who is good can ever be ugly. — Roald Dahl, The Twits
12. Mr. Twit was a twit. He was born a twit. And, now at the age of sixty, he was a bigger twit than ever. — Roald Dahl, The Twits
13. What a lot of hairy-faced men there are around nowadays. — Roald Dahl, The Twits

Peach Adventures

1. My dear young fellow, there are a whole lot of things in this world of ours you haven’t started wondering about yet. — Roald Dahl, James and the Giant Peach
2. Poor Earthworm. He loves to make everything into a disaster. He hates to be happy. — Roald Dahl, James and the Giant Peach
3. Well, maybe it started that way. As a dream, but doesn’t everything. — Roald Dahl, James and the Giant Peach
4. We are now about to visit the most marvelous places and see the most wonderful things! — Roald Dahl, James and the Giant Peach
5. Come right up close to me and I will show you something wonderful. — Roald Dahl, James and the Giant Peach

Danny’s World

1. Most of the really exciting things we do in our lives scare us to death. They wouldn’t be exciting if they didn’t. — Roald Dahl, Danny the Champion of the World
2. What a child wants and deserves is a parent who is SPARKY. — Roald Dahl, Danny the Champion of the World
3. My father, without the slightest doubt, was the most marvelous and exciting father any boy ever had. — Roald Dahl, Danny the Champion of the World
4. You can fake a mouth-smile any time you want, simply by moving your lips. — Roald Dahl, Danny the Champion of the World
5. Grown-ups are complicated creatures, full of quirks and secrets. — Roald Dahl, Danny the Champion of the World
6. I therefore invite you all to stay here with me for ever. — Roald Dahl, Fantastic Mr Fox

Roald Dahl Quotes on Writing and Life

1. We all have our moments of brilliance and glory, and this was mine. — Roald Dahl, Boy
2. When writing about oneself, one must strive to be truthful. Truth is more important than modesty. — Roald Dahl, Boy
3. An autobiography is a book a person writes about his own life and it is usually full of all sorts of boring details. — Roald Dahl, Boy
4. A person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation is absolute freedom. He has no master except his own soul. — Roald Dahl, Boy
5. It is almost worth going away because it’s so lovely coming back. — Roald Dahl, Boy
6. The writer has to force himself to work. — Roald Dahl, Boy
7. Two hours of writing fiction leaves this particular writer absolutely drained. — Roald Dahl, Boy
8. All grown-ups appear as giants to small children. — Roald Dahl, Boy
9. A life is made up of a great number of small incidents and a small number of great ones. — Roald Dahl, Going Solo
10. I began to realize how important it was to be an enthusiast in life. — Roald Dahl, My Uncle Oswald
11. The secret of life is to become very very good at something that’s very very hard to do. — Roald Dahl, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
12. No book ever ends, when it’s full of your friends. — Roald Dahl, The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me
13. I think probably kindness is my number one attribute in a human being. — Roald Dahl, Roald Dahl
14. If you are going to get anywhere in life you have to read a lot of books. — Roald Dahl, Roald Dahl
15. Life is more fun if you play games. — Roald Dahl, My Uncle Oswald
16. Never grow up… always down. — Roald Dahl, George’s Marvellous Medicine

Minpins Magic

1. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it. — Roald Dahl, The Minpins
2. And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. — Roald Dahl, The Minpins

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Roald Dahl’s most famous quote?

“Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.” — the closing line of The Minpins — is his most quoted line worldwide. Close contenders include “Never do anything by halves if you want to get away with it. Be outrageous.” from Matilda and “A little nonsense now and then, is relished by the wisest men.” from Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator.

What did Roald Dahl say about reading?

“If you are going to get anywhere in life you have to read a lot of books.” Dahl was a passionate champion of children’s reading, and Matilda itself is a love letter to books and libraries.

What is gobblefunk?

Gobblefunk is the BFG’s gloriously mixed-up way of speaking — “I is”, “you is”, “human beans” and invented words like “whizzpopper” and “snozzcumber”. Dahl invented it to make language itself feel playful.

Which Roald Dahl book should I read first?

Start with Matilda for wit and heart, The BFG for pure imagination, or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for the classic adventure. Each is short enough to finish in a few sittings.

More Roald Dahl Quotes to Explore

• Kindness Quotes That Warm the Heart
• Friendship Quotes for True Friends
• Good Luck Quotes for New Beginnings
• Wisdom Quotes From Great Minds
• Adventure Quotes for Brave Souls
• Hope Quotes for Hard Times
• Courage Quotes to Be Brave
• Happiness Quotes to Brighten Your Day
• True Love Quotes for Your Soulmate
• Romantic Love Quotes to Melt Hearts
• I Love You Quotes From the Heart
• Miss You Quotes for Someone Special
• Best Friend Quotes for True Friendship
• Sympathy Quotes for Difficult Times
• Self Love Quotes to Value Yourself
• Success Quotes to Chase Your Dreams