Who is Theodor Seuss Geisel
Theodor Seuss Geisel was born 2 March 1904 in Springfield, MA. He graduated Dartmouth College in 1925, and proceeded on to Oxford University with the intent of acquiring a doctorate in literature. At Oxford he met Helen Palmer, who he wed in 1927. He returned from Europe in 1927, and began working for a magazine called Judge, the leading humor magazine in America at the time, submitting both cartoons and humorous articles for them. Additionally, he was submitting cartoons to Life, Vanity Fair and Liberty. In some of his works, he’d made reference to an insecticide called Flit. These references gained notice, and led to a contract to draw comic ads for Flit. This association lasted 17 years, gained him national exposure, and coined the catchphrase “Quick, Henry, the Flit!”
In 1936 on the way to a vaction in Europe, listening to the rhythm of the ship’s engines, he came up with And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, which was then promptly rejected by the first 43 publishers he showed it to. Eventually in 1937 a friend published the book for him, and it went on to at least moderate success.
During WW II, Geisel joined the army and was sent to Hollywood. Captain Geisel would write for Frank Capra’s Signal Corps Unit (for which he won the Legion of Merit) and do documentaries (he won Oscar’s for Hitler Lives and Design for Death). He also created a cartoon called Gerald McBoing-Boing which also won him an Oscar.
Theodor Seuss Geisel
1. Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.
2. I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living.
3. You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go.
4. Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.
5. Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.
6. The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.
7. A person’s a person, no matter how small.
8. Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
Nothing is going to get better. It’s not.
9. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope.
10. Why fit in when you were born to stand out?
11. Being crazy isn’t enough.
12. Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!
13. I have heard there are troubles of more than one kind. Some come from ahead and some come from behind. But I’ve bought a big bat. I’m all ready you see. Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me!
14. You’re off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting,
So… get on your way!
15. So be sure when you step, Step with care and great tact. And remember that life’s A Great Balancing Act. And will you succeed? Yes! You will, indeed! (98 and ¾ percent guaranteed) Kid, you’ll move mountains.
16. How did it get so late so soon?
17. Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one.
18. If things start happening, don’t worry, don’t stew, just go right along and you’ll start happening too.
19. All alone! Whether you like it or not, alone is something you’ll be quite a lot!
20. From there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere!
21. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before! What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. What if Christmas…perhaps…means a little bit more!
22. I meant what I said and I said what I meant. An elephant’s faithful one-hundred percent!
23. Adults are just obsolete children and the hell with them.
24. Remember me and smile, for it’s better to forget than to remember me and cry.
25. They say I’m old-fashioned, and live in the past, but sometimes I think progress progresses too fast!
26. You’ll miss the best things if you keep your eyes shut.
27. Only you can control your future.
28. If you never did you should. These things are fun and fun is good.
29. I’m afraid that sometimes you’ll play lonely games too. Games you can’t win ’cause you’ll play against you.
30. Be awesome! Be a book nut!
31. I’m glad we had the times together just to laugh and sing a song, seems like we just got started and then before you know it, the times we had together were gone.
32. You can get help from teachers, but you are going to have to learn a lot by yourself, sitting alone in a room.
33. When beetles fight these battles in a bottle with their paddles
and the bottle’s on a poodle and the poodle’s eating noodles…
…they call this a muddle puddle tweetle poodle beetle noodle
bottle paddle battle.
34. So the writer who breeds more words than he needs, is making a chore for the reader who reads.
35. Think and wonder, wonder and think.
36. ASAP. Whatever that means. It must mean, ‘Act swiftly awesome pacyderm!
37. You’ll get mixed up, of course, as you already know. You’ll get mixed up with many strange birds as you go. So be sure when you step. Step with care and great tact and remember that Life’s a Great Balancing Act. Just never forget to be dexterous and deft. And never mix up your right foot with your left.
38. I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees. I speak for the trees for the trees have no tongues.
39. And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow,
stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled ’till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.
40. I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, It’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, And that enables you to laugh at life’s realities.
41. To the world you may be one person; but to one person you may be the world.
42. How did it get so late so soon? It’s night before it’s afternoon. December is here before it’s June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?
43. Look at me!
Look at me!
Look at me NOW!
It is fun to have fun
But you have to know how.
44. It’s not about what it is, it’s about what it can become.
45. Oh the places you’ll go! There is fun to be done! There are points to be scored. There are games to be won. And the magical things you can do with that ball will make you the winning-est winner of all.
46. I know, up on top you are seeing great sights, but down here at the bottom we, too, should have rights.
47. There’s no limit to how much you’ll know, depending how far beyond zebra you go.
48. The storm starts, when the drops start dropping
When the drops stop dropping then the storm starts stopping.
49. Poor empty pants
With nobody inside them.
50. It has often been said
there’s so much to be read,
you never can cram
all those words in your head.
So the writer who breeds
more words than he needs
is making a chore
for the reader who reads.
That’s why my belief is
the briefer the brief is,
the greater the sigh
of the reader’s relief is.
And that’s why your books
have such power and strength.
You publish with shorth!
(Shorth is better than length.)
51. If you’d never been born, then you might be an Isn’t!
An Isn’t has no fun at all. No, he disn’t.
52. I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells.
53. You are you. Now, isn’t that pleasant?
54. Things may happen and often do to people as brainy and footsy as you
55. When he worked, he really worked. But when he played, he really PLAYED.
56. Sometimes you will never know the value of something,until it becomes a memory.
57. Oh, the things you can find if you don’t stay behind!
58. And the turtles, of course…all the turtles are free, as turtles and, maybe, all creatures should be.
59. Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!
60. Today I shall behave, as if this is the day I will be remembered.
