# Dr. Seuss

Theodor Seuss Geisel (2 March 1904 – 24 September 1991) was an American children's author, political cartoonist, illustrator, poet, animator, and filmmaker. He is known for his work writing and illustrating more than 60 books under the pen name Dr. Seuss. His work includes many of the most popular children's books of all time, selling over 600 million copies and being translated into more than 20 languages by the time of his death.

## Quotes

* ... and the wolf chewed up the children and spit out their bones ... But those were Foreign Children and it really didn't matter ...
** Caption to a political cartoon against the "America First" movement, showing children being read a story of "Adolf the Wolf", in PM Magazine (1 October 1941). For more context see:Another popular rumor was
* You make 'em, I amuse 'em.
** Statement about children, as quoted in Enter, Conversing (1962) by Clifton Fadiman, p. 108
* Nonsense wakes up the brain cells. And it helps develop a sense of humor, which is awfully important in this day and age. Humor has a tremendous place in this sordid world. It's more than just a matter of laughing. If you can see things out of whack, then you can see how things can be in whack.
** As quoted in "Author Isn't Just a Cat in the Hat" by Miles Corwin in The Los Angeles Times (27 November 1983); also in Dr. Seuss: American Icon (2004) by Philip Nel, p. 38
* When at last we are sure You've been properly pilled, Then a few paper forms Must be properly filled So that you and your heirs May be properly billed.
** You're Only Old Once! : A Book for Obsolete Children (1986)
* You can get help from teachers, but you are going to have to learn a lot by yourself, sitting alone in a room.
** On becoming a writer, NY Times (May 21, 1986)
* Adults are just obsolete children and the hell with them.
** On writing for adults, as quoted in Of Sneetches and Whos and the Good Dr. Seuss: Essays on the Writings and Life of Theodor Geisel (1997) by Thomas Fensch, p. 96

### And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street (1937)

* And that is a story that no one can beat, When I say that I saw it on Mulberry Street.

### Horton Hatches the Egg (1940)

* I meant what I said, and I said what I meant An elephant's faithful, One hundred percent.

### Horton Hears a Who! (1954)

* On the 15th of May, in the Jungle of Nool, In the heat of the day, in the cool of the pool, He was splashing... enjoying the jungle's great joys... When Horton the elephant heard a small noise.
* A person's a person, no matter how small.
* "My friends!", cried the elephant. "Tell me! Do tell! Are you safe? Are you sound? Are you whole? Are you well?"
* "You're going to be roped! And you're going to be caged! And, as for your dust speck – hah! That we shall boil in a hot steaming kettle of Beezle-Nut Oil!"
* "Don't give up! I believe in you all. A person's a person, no matter how small! And you very small persons will not have to die If you make yourselves heard! So come on, now, and TRY!"
* "This", cried the Mayor, "is your town's darkest hour! The time for all Whos who have blood that is red To come to the aid of their country!", he said. "We've GOT to make noises in greater amounts! So, open your mouth, lad! For every voice counts!"

### On Beyond Zebra! (1955)

* Oh the things you can find If you don't stay behind!
* In the places I go there are things that I see That I never could spell if I stopped with the Z. I'm telling you this 'cause you're one of my friends. My alphabet starts where your alphabet ends!
* So, on beyond Z! It's high time you were shown That you really don't know All there is to be known.

### The Cat in the Hat (1957)

* The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play. So we sat in the house All that cold, cold, wet day.
* We looked! Then we saw him Step in on the mat! We looked! And we saw him! The Cat in the Hat!

### How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1957)

* "Maybe Christmas...", he thought, "...Doesn't come from a store." "Maybe Christmas... perhaps... means a little bit more!"
* Well, in Who-ville they say That the Grinch's small heart Grew 3 sizes that day.

### Yertle the Turtle (1958)

* And today the great Yertle, that Marvelous he, Is King of the Mud. That is all he can see. And the turtles, of course... all the turtles are free As turtles and, maybe, all creatures should be.
* I know up on top you are seeing great sights, But down here on the bottom, We too should have rights.

### One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish (1960)

* From there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere.
* If you never did You should. These things are fun. and Fun is good.'

### Green Eggs and Ham (1960)

* I am Sam. Sam-I-Am.
* That Sam-I-Am! That Sam-I-Am! I do not like that Sam-I-Am!
* I would not like them here or there. I would not like them anywhere. I do not like green eggs and ham. I do not like them, Sam-I-Am.
* Say! I like green eggs and ham! I do! I like them, Sam-I-Am!

### I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew (1965)

* I pulled, pulled, and pulled. And the next thing I knew, I was pulling the camel and Wubble-Chap too! "Now really," I thought, "this is rather unfair!" But he said, "Don't you stew. I am doing my share. "This is called teamwork. I furnish the brains. You furnish the muscles, the aches and the pains. I'll pick the best roads, tell you just where to go, And we'll find a good doctor more quickly, you know." Then he sat and he worked with his brains and his tongue And he bossed me around just because I was young. He told me go left. Then he told me go right. And that's what he told me all day and all night.
* A big man on a horse scared me out of my wits. He bellowed, "I'm General Genghis Kahn Schmitz. There's a war going on! And it's time that you knew Every lad in this land has his duty to do. We're marching to battle. We need you, my boy! We're about to attack. We're about to destroy The Perilous Poozer of Pompelmoose Pass! So get into line. You're a Private, First Class."
* I'd have no more troubles... That's what the man said. So I started to go. But I didn't. Instead .... I did some quick thinking Inside of my head. Then I started back home To the Valley of Vung. I know I'll have troubles. I'll maybe get stung. I'll always have troubles. I'll maybe get bit By that Green-Headed Quail On the place where I sit. But I've bought a big bat. I'm all ready, you see. Now my troubles are going To have troubles with me!

### The Lorax (1971)

* "Mister!" he said with a sawdusty sneeze. "I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees. I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues. And I'm asking you, sir, at the top of my lungs" – He was very upset as he shouted and puffed – "What's that THING you've made out of my Truffula tuft?"
* I am the Lorax who speaks for the trees, Which you seem to be chopping as fast as you please! But I'm also in charge of the brown Bar-ba-loots, Who played in the shade in their Bar-ba-loot suits, And happily lived, eating Truffula fruits. Now, thanks to your hacking my trees to the ground, There's not enough Truffula fruit to go 'round! And my poor Bar-ba-loots are all getting the crummies Because they have gas, and no food, in their tummies!
* UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not.
* "So . . . Catch!" calls the Once-ler. He lets something fall. "It's a Truffula Seed. It's the last one of all! You're in charge of the last of the Truffula Seeds. And Truffula Trees are what everyone needs. Plant a new Truffula. Treat it with care. Give it clean water. And feed it fresh air. Grow a forest. Protect it from axes that hack. Then the Lorax and all of his friends may come back."
* Now all that was left 'neath the bad-smelling sky was my big empty factory... the Lorax... and I. The Lorax said nothing. Just gave me a glance, just gave me a very sad, sad backward glance, as he lifted himself by the seat of his pants. And I'll never forget the grim look on his face when he heisted himself and took leave of this place, through a hole in the smog, without leaving a trace. And all that the Lorax left here in this mess was a small pile of rocks with the one word: UNLESS. Whatever that meant . . . well, I just couldn't guess.

### Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are? (1973)

* It's a troublesome world. All the people who're in it are troubled with troubles almost every minute. You oughta be thankful, a whole heaping lot, For the places and people you're lucky you're not!
** The last sentence of this statement is often misquoted as "You oughta be thankful, a whole heaping lot, / For the people and places you're lucky you're not!'"
* And suppose that you lived in that forest in France Where the average young person just hasn't a chance To escape from the perilous pants-eating plants! But your pants are safe! You're a fortunate guy. And you ought to be shouting, "How lucky am I!"
* Thank goodness for all the things you are not! Thank goodness you're not something someone forgot, and left all alone in some punkerish place like a rusty tin coat hanger hanging in space.
* That's why I say, "Duckie! Don’t grumble! Don’t stew! Some critters are much-much, oh, ever so much-much, so muchly much-much more unlucky than you!"

### I Can Read With My Eyes Shut! (1978)

* The more that you read, The more things you will know. The more that you learn, The more places you'll go.
* Young cat! If you keep Your eyes open enough, Oh, the stuff you will learn! The most wonderful stuff!
* you'll miss the best things if you keep your eyes shut

### Oh, the Places You'll Go! (1990)

* You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
* With your head full of brains, and your shoes full of feet, You're too smart to go down any not-so-good-street.
* Out there things can happen, and frequently do, To people as brainy and footsy as you. And when things start to happen, don't worry, don't stew. Just go right along, you'll start happening too!
* You're off to great places. Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So... get on your way.

## Miscellaneous

* [...] right now, when the Japs are planting their hatchets in our skulls, it seems like a hell of a time for us to smile and warble: “Brothers!” It is a rather flabby battle cry. If we want to win, we've got to kill Japs, whether it depresses John Haynes Holmes or not. We can get palsy-walsy afterward with those that are left.
** Commenting his patriotic editorial cartoon in 1942 in the New York newspaper PM. Source: Dr. Seuss Draws Anti-Japanese Cartoons During WWII, Then Atones with Horton Hears a Who!. For more context, see Dr. Seuss Goes to War.

## Disputed

* Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.
** Often attributed to Dr. Seuss without citation; also cited as an anonymous proverb.
** This quote has also been attributed to Gabriel García Márquez, in Spanish: "No llores porque ya se terminó, sonríe porque sucedió."
*** Compare lines from In Memoriam A.H.H. of Tennyson:   'Tis better to have loved and lost   Than never to have loved at all.

## Misattributed

* Those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.
** Bernard Baruch in response to a question by Igor Cassini as to how he handled the seating arrangements at his dinner parties, as quoted in Shake Well Before Using: A New Collection of Impressions and Anecdotes Mostly Humorous (1948) by Bennett Cerf, p. 249; the full response was "I never bother about that. Those who matter don't mind, and those who mind don't matter." This anecdote is also quoted online at Chiasmus.com. It has also become part of a larger expression, which has been commonly attributed to Dr. Seuss, even in print, but without citation of a specific work: "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."
** "The earliest instance located by [QUOTEINVESTIGATOR.COM] was printed in 1938 in a journal based in London and written for municipal and county engineers. The phrase was used comically to discount the criticisms directed at housing designs. The words were enclosed in quotation marks suggesting that the quip was already known in 1938: Mr. Davies himself admitted that it was highly controversial and open to criticism; but criticism concerned both mind and matter. “Those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind!”" 1938 February 1, The Journal of the Institution of Municipal & County Engineers, Volume 64, Number 16, Discussion, [Quotation is contained in the remarks of “Mr. Percy Morris (Wakefield)”], Quote Page 1277, Published at the Offices of the Institution of Municipal & County Engineers, London. (Verified with scans; Thanks to Dennis Lien and the University of Minnesota library system)"
* You want my opinion? We're all a little weird. And life is a little weird. And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness — and call it love — true love.
** Robert Fulghum in True Love (1998). Versions attributed to Dr. Seuss usually run "mutual weirdness".
* Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.
** Georges Duhamel in THE HEART'S DOMAIN (1919). As it was composed in French, the wording in English may vary in translation. Theodore Geisel / Dr. Seuss was born in 1904, and would have been about 15 years old at the time that it was published. The full text can be found at the link below: We do not know the true value of our moments until they have undergone the test of memory. Like the images the photographer plunges into a golden bath, our sentiments take on color; and only then, after that recoil and that trans-figuration, do we understand their real meaning and enjoy them in all their tranquil splendor.

## External links

* Brief biography of Dr. Seuss (UC San Diego)
* The Advertising Artwork of Dr. Seuss (UC San Diego)
* The complete Dr. Seuss editorial cartoons (UC San Diego)
* An essay by Melissa Kaplan
* Seussville site (Random House)
* The Dr. Seuss Web Page
* Dr. Seuss on the web
* Full text of the Heart's Domain by Georges Duhamel.
* Dr. Seuss on IMDb