American writer (1856-1919)
Anything that keeps you from singing is foolishness, unless it's laughter.
L. FRANK BAUM
The Sea Fairies
It is the Law that while Evil, unopposed, may accomplish terrible deeds, the power of Good can never be overthrown when opposed to Evil.
L. FRANK BAUM
The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus
Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking, don't you think?
L. FRANK BAUM
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
If we used money to buy things with, instead of love and kindness and the desire to please one another, then we should be no better than the rest of the world.... Fortunately money is not known in the Land of Oz at all. We have no rich, and no poor; for what one wishes the others all try to give him, in order to make him happy, and no one in all Oz cares to have more than he can use.
L. FRANK BAUM
The Road to Oz
"It must be inconvenient to be made of flesh," said the Scarecrow thoughtfully, "for you must sleep, and eat and drink. However, you have brains, and it is worth a lot of bother to be able to think properly."
L. FRANK BAUM
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
I am a good beast, perhaps, but a disgracefully bad tiger. For it is the nature of tigers to be cruel and ferocious, and in refusing to eat harmless living creatures I am acting as no good tiger has ever before acted.
L. FRANK BAUM
Ozma of Oz
The absurd and legendary devil is the enigma of the Church.
L. FRANK BAUM
The Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer, October 18, 1890
Modern education includes morality; therefore the modern child seeks only entertainment in its wonder-tales and gladly dispenses with all disagreeable incident.
L. FRANK BAUM
introduction, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
I think the world is like a great mirror, and reflects our lives just as we ourselves look upon it. Those who turn sad faces toward the world find only sadness reflected. But a smile is reflected in the same way, and cheers and brightens our hearts.
L. FRANK BAUM
Aunt Jane's Nieces and Uncle John
Folklore, legends, myths and fairy tales have followed childhood through the ages, for every healthy youngster has a wholesome and instinctive love for stories fantastic, marvelous and manifestly unreal.
L. FRANK BAUM
introduction, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Everybody here is a dictator of something or other. They're all office holders. That's what keeps them contented. But I'm the Supreme Dictator of all, and I'm elected once a year. This is a democracy, you know, where the people are allowed to vote for their rulers. A good many others would like to be Supreme Dictator, but as I made a law that I am always to count the votes myself, I am always elected.
L. FRANK BAUM
Glinda of Oz
To destroy an offender cannot benefit society so much as to redeem him.
L. FRANK BAUM
The Flying Girl
My people have been wearing green glasses on their eyes for so long that most of them think this really is an Emerald City.
L. FRANK BAUM
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
We consider a prisoner unfortunate. He is unfortunate in two ways -- because he has done something wrong and because he is deprived of his liberty. Therefore we should treat him kindly, because of his misfortune, for otherwise he would become hard and bitter and would not be sorry he had done wrong.
L. FRANK BAUM
The Patchwork Girl of Oz
The dying does not amount to much ... it is the thinking about it that hurts.
L. FRANK BAUM
The Sea Fairies
Time is given us to be happy and for no other reason.
L. FRANK BAUM
The Sea Fairies
The Tin Woodman knew very well he had no heart, and therefore he took great care never to be cruel or unkind to anything.
L. FRANK BAUM
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Now we can cross the Shifting Sands.
L. FRANK BAUM
last words to his wife Maud, May 6, 1919
"All the same," said the Scarecrow, "I shall ask for brains instead of a heart; for a fool would not know what to do with a heart if he had one."
L. FRANK BAUM
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
As the years pass, and we look back on something which, at the time, seemed unbelievably discouraging and unfair, we come to realize that, after all, God was at all times on our side. The eventual outcome was, we discover, by far the best solution for us, and what we thought should have been to our best advantage, would in reality have been quite detrimental.
L. FRANK BAUM
letter to his eldest son, September 1918