18 uplifting book quotes that are completely timeless

Take inspiration from these iconic quotes and words of wisdom from some of our favourite characters.

Puffin team

'The way to deal with an impossible task was to chop it down into a number of merely very difficult tasks, and break each one of them into a group of horribly hard tasks, and each one of them into tricky jobs, and each one of them...'

The Twits by Roald Dahl

'If you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.'

Eight Keys by Suzanne LaFleur

'But in life people come and go. We don't always have control over it. But we can control how we respond. We can keep going, keep living the best we can. We can love the people we have instead of shutting them out. We can do our best to get to know them in the time we have.'

The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

'"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 facing danger when you are afraid, and that kind of courage you have in plenty."'

The Borrowers Afield in The Complete Borrowers by Mary Norton

'The past is experience: that’s all you got to learn from.'

Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery

'Oh, it's delightful to have ambitions. I'm so glad I have such a lot. And there never seems to be any end to them – that's the best of it. Just as soon as you attain to one ambition you see another one glittering higher up still. It does make life so interesting.'

Diary of a Wimpy Kid (Book 1) by Jeff Kinney

'Be yourself and people will like you.'

Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolk

'The year I turned twelve, I learnt that what I said and what I did mattered.'

The Terrible Thing That Happened to Barnaby Brocket by John Boyne

'Just because your version of normal isn't the same as someone else's version doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with you.'

Scarlett by Cathy Cassidy

'Life chucks a bunch of stuff at us, stuff we have no control over, but we can decide how to handle it all. We shape our lives with the choices we make.'