Top 300 Philip Pullman Quotes (2025 Update)
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301. “But in another way it was easy, because it made sense. For the first time ever I felt I was doing something with all of my nature and not only a part of it. So it was lonely for a while but then I got used to it.”

— Philip Pullman

302. “I don’t know where I belong, so I’m free. No one’s got a hold on me.”

— Philip Pullman

303. “And when Rusakov discovered Dust, at last there was physical proof that something happened when innocence changed into experience.”

— Philip Pullman

304. “If there’s an invisible assassin in this place, I can only imagine it’s the Devil himself, I dare say he feels quite at home.”

— Philip Pullman

305. “The two old men couldn’t help smiling, but whereas Farder Coram’s smile was a hesitant, rich, complicated expression that trembled across his face like sunlight chasing shadows on a windy March day, John Faa’s smile was slow, warm, plain, and kindly.”

— Philip Pullman

306. “As soon as men who believe they’re doing God’s will get hold of power, whether it’s in a household or a village or in Jerusalem or in Rome itself, the devil enters into them.”

— Philip Pullman

307. “If that was Tom Simms,” said Audrey, “I’d say he was probably drunk and his mermaid was a porpoise.”

— Philip Pullman

308. “Does the tree say to the sparrow “Get out, you don’t belong here?” Does the tree say to the hungry man “This fruit is not for you?” Does the tree test the loyalty of the beasts before it allows them into the shade?”

— Philip Pullman

309. “Never, never,” she breathed into his fur, and he pressed his beating heart to hers.”

— Philip Pullman

310. “Streite mit allem, was du willst, aber nicht mit deiner eigenen Natur.”

— Philip Pullman

311. “Well, that seems kinda precipitate. Seems to me a man should have a choice whether to take up arms or not.” “We have no more choice in that than in whether or not to be born.”

— Philip Pullman

312. “Instead, we should delicately and subtly undermine the idea that truth and facts are possible in the first place. Once the people have become doubtful about the truth of anything, all kinds of things will be open to us.”

— Philip Pullman

313. “He was twenty-four, ready for adventure, and happy to go wherever the winds took him. He’d better be, as Hester reminded him; he wasn’t going to go anywhere else.”

— Philip Pullman

314. “All the time I was away,” Lyra said, “I never thought about that. All I thought about was just the time I was in, just the present. There were plenty of times when I thought I didn’t get a future at all. And now... Well, suddenly finding I’ve got a whole life to live, but no... but no idea what to do with it, well, it’s like having the alethiometer but no idea how to read it.”

— Philip Pullman

315. “Much ingenious interpretation of story is little more than seeing pleasing patterns in the sparks of a fire, but it does no harm.”

— Philip Pullman

316. “I’m a tin princess. Like chess: I come all the way across the board and turned into a queen, Still only tin, though.”

— Philip Pullman

317. “Another crack, and this time the bullet went deep somewhere inside, seeking out the centre of his life. He thought: it won’t find it there. Hester’s my centre.”

— Philip Pullman

318. “That’s interesting,” said Dr. Lieberson. “History’s not over, you see. It’s happening all the time.”

— Philip Pullman

319. “Lyra looked at the two of them, so utterly different: Iofur so glossy and powerful, immense in his strength and health, splendidly armored, proud and kinglike; and Iorek smaller, though she had never thought he would look small, and poorly equipped, his armor rusty and dented. But his armor was his soul. He had made it and it fitted him. They were one. Iofur was not content with his armor; he wanted another soul as well. He was restless while Iorek was still.”

— Philip Pullman

320. “She’d hardly been aware of feeling anxious, but that was because anxiety was everywhere, built into the very molecules of the world, or so it had seemed.”

— Philip Pullman

321. “Everybody has the right to form their own opinion and read what they like and come to their own conclusion about it... I trust the reader.”

— Philip Pullman

322. “The trouble with kind people is they’re not sexy.”

— Philip Pullman

323. “You scribes and Pharisees, if you’re listening – be damned to you. You take endless scruples over the tiniest matters of the law, while you let the great things like justice and mercy and faith go unnoticed and forgotten. You strain the gnats out of your wine, but you ignore the camel standing in it.”

— Philip Pullman

324. “No. Some of them are just like this one, except for one detail. Imagine a world just like this, for example, but where every human being has an animal spirit accompanying them. A sort of visual spirit guide, animal totem, that sort of thing. Part of their own selves, but separate. For example.”

— Philip Pullman

325. “We shouldn’t be afraid of the obvious, because stories are about life, and life is full of obvious things like food and sleep and love and courage which you don’t stop needing just because you’re a good reader.”

— Philip Pullman

326. “The meaning of one thing is its connection with another;.”

— Philip Pullman

327. “If they turned their back on something frightening behind them and tried to get really interested in the stones and how they fitted together, or the leaves on the bush, like if only they could make themselves find that really important, they’d be safe.”

— Philip Pullman

328. “My brother maintains that sinners will be forgiven more readily than those who are righteous,’ he said. ‘I have not sinned very much; perhaps I have not sinned enough to earn the forgiveness of God.”

— Philip Pullman

329. “Well, where is God,” said Mrs. Coulter, “if he’s alive? And why doesn’t he speak anymore? At the beginning of the world, God walked in the Garden and spoke with Adam and Eve. Then he began to withdraw, and he forbade Moses to look at his face. Later, in the time of Daniel, he was aged – he was the Ancient of Days. Where is he now?”

— Philip Pullman

330. “One strange thing about stories is that you sometimes know how long they’re going to be, even before you’ve begun thinking about them.”

— Philip Pullman