# T. H. White

- Quotes: 45
- Author page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/t-h-white

## Books

- [Mistress Masham's Repose](https://www.leafyquotes.com/t-h-white/mistress-mashams-repose.md) — 6 quotes
- [The Book of Merlyn](https://www.leafyquotes.com/t-h-white/the-book-of-merlyn.md) — 7 quotes
- [The Sword in the Stone](https://www.leafyquotes.com/t-h-white/the-sword-in-the-stone.md) — 32 quotes

## Recently added quotes

> The governess had red hair and some mysterious wound from which she derived a lot of prestige by showing it to all the women of the castle, behind closed doors. It was believed to be where she sat down, and to have been caused by sitting on some armour at a picnic by mistake. Eventually she offered to show it to Sir Ector, who was Kay's father, had hysterics and was sent away. They found out afterwards that she had been in a lunatic hospital for three years.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/t-h-white/the-sword-in-the-stone/the-governess-had.md)

> Merlyn stopped talking and looked at the Wart in an anxious way. "Have I told you this before?"
>
> "No, we only met about half an hour ago."
>
> "So little time to pass?" and a big tear ran down to the end of his nose. He wiped it off with his pyjamas and added anxiously, "Am I going to tell it you again?"

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/t-h-white/the-sword-in-the-stone/merlyn-stopped-talking.md)

> As far as the Wart was concerned, there was a time after this in which Sir Ector kept telling him to put the sword back into the stone — which he did — and in which Sir Ector and Kay then vainly tried to take it out. The Wart took it out for them, and stuck it back again once or twice. After this, there was another time which was more painful.
>
> He saw that his dear guardian was looking quite old and powerless, and that he was kneeling down with difficulty on a gouty knee.
>
> "Sir," said Sir Ector, without looking up, although he was speaking to his own boy.
>
> "Please do not do this, father," said the Wart, kneeling down also. "Let me help you up, Sir Ector, because you are making me unhappy."
>
> "Nay, nay, my lord," said Sir Ector, "I was never your father nor of your blood, but I wote well ye are of an higher blood than I wend ye were."
>
> "Plenty of people have told me you are not my father," said the Wart, "but it does not matter a bit."
>
> "Sir," said Sir Ector humbly, "will ye be my good and gracious lord when ye are King?"
>
> "Oh, father, don't kneel down like that, because it breaks my heart. Please get up, Sir Ector, and don't make everything so horrible. Oh, dear, oh, dear, I wish I had never seen that filthy sword at all."

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/t-h-white/the-sword-in-the-stone/as-far-as-the.md)

> "There are no boundaries among the geese. How can you have boundaries if you fly? Those ants of yours — and the humans too — would have to stop fighting in the end, if they took to the air."

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/t-h-white/the-sword-in-the-stone/there-are-no-boundaries.md)

> "How does one get hold of a sword?" the Wart continued. He turned his mount and cantered off along the street. There was a quiet churchyard at the end of it, with a kind of square in front of the church door. In the middle of the square there was a heavy stone with an anvil on it, and a fine new sword was stuck through the anvil.
>
> "Well," said the Wart, "I suppose it is some sort of war memorial, but it will have to do."
>
> He strode up the gravel path, and took hold of the sword. "Come, sword," he said. "I must cry your mercy and take you for a better cause."

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/t-h-white/the-sword-in-the-stone/how-does-one.md)

> EVERYTHING NOT FORBIDDEN IS COMPULSORY

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/t-h-white/the-sword-in-the-stone/everything-not-forbidden.md)

> "Oh, my own random, wicked little lamb!"

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/t-h-white/the-sword-in-the-stone/oh-my-own.md)

> "Do you mean to tell me," exclaimed Sir Grummore indignantly, "that there ain't no King of Gramarye?"
>
> "Not a scrap of one," cried King Pellinore, feeling important. "And there have been signs and wonders of no mean might."
>
> "What sort of signs and wonders?" asked Sir Ector.
>
> "Well, there has appeared a sort of sword in a stone, what, in a sort of a church…"
>
> "I don't know what the Church is coming to," said Sir Grummore.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/t-h-white/the-sword-in-the-stone/do-you-mean.md)

> Master Twyti stroked Beaumont's head and said, "Hark to Beaumont. Softly, Beaumont, mon amy. Oyez a Beaumont the valiant. Swef, le douce Beaumont, swef, swef." Beaumont licked his hand but could not wag his tail. The huntsman nodded to Robin, who was standing behind, and held the hound's eyes with his own. He said, "Good dog, Beaumont the valiant, sleep now, old friend Beaumont, good old dog." Then Robin's falchion let Beaumont out of this world, to run free with Orion and roll among the stars.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/t-h-white/the-sword-in-the-stone/master-twyti-stroked.md)

> "The best thing for being sad…is to learn something. That is the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake in the middle of the night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world around you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting."

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/t-h-white/the-sword-in-the-stone/the-best-thing.md)

> Wart would not have been frightened of an English forest nowadays, but the great jungle of Old England was a different matter. The mad and wicked animals were not the only inhabitants of the crowded gloom. There were magicians in the forest…as well as strange animals not known to modern works of natural history. There were regular bands of Saxon outlaws, who lived together and wore green and shot with arrows which never missed. There were even a few dragons, though these were small ones, which lived under stones and could hiss like a kettle.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/t-h-white/the-sword-in-the-stone/wart-would-not.md)

> On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays it was Court Hand and Summulae Logicales, while the rest of the week it was the Organon, Repetition and Astrology. The governess was always getting muddled with her astrolabe, and when she got specially muddled she would take it out of the Wart by rapping his knuckles. She did not rap Kay's knuckles, because when Kay grew older he would be Sir Kay, the master of the estate. The Wart was called the Wart because it more or less rhymed with Art, which was short for his real name.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/t-h-white/the-sword-in-the-stone/on-mondays-wednesdays.md)