Cressida Cowell

“For a Hero cannot triumph all the time. Sometimes he will be defeated, and how he faces that defeat is a test of his character.”

“But how can we know that dragons did not exist? We have never actually BEEN to the Dark Ages.”

“Books were despised by the Viking Tribes, as they were seen as a horrible civilizing influence and a threat to the barbarian culture.”

“I myself grew up to be not only a Hero, but also a Writer. When I was an adult, I rewrote A Hero's Guide to Deadly Dragons, and I included not only some descriptions of the various deadly dragon species, and a useful Dragonese Dictionary, but also this story of how the book came to be written in the first place.This is the book that you are holding in your hands right now.Perhaps you even borrowed it from a Library?If so, thank Thor that the sinister figure of the Hairy Scary Librarian is not lurking around a corner, hiding in the shadows, Heart-Slicers at the ready, or that the punishment for your curiosity is not the whirring whine of a Driller Dragon's drill.You, dear reader, I am sure cannot imagine what it might to be like to live in a world in which books are banned.For surely such things will never happen in the Future?Thank Thor that you live in a time and a place where people have the right to live and think and write and read their books in peace, and there are no need for Heroes anymore ...And spare a thought for those who have not been so lucky.”

“However small we are, we should always fight for what we believe to be right. And I don’t mean fight with the power of our fists or the power of our swords…I mean the power of our brains and our thoughts and our dreams.And as small and quiet and unimportant as our fighting may look, perhaps we might all work together…and break out of the prisons of our own making. Perhaps we might be able to keep this fierce and beautiful world of ours as free for all of us as it seemed to be on that blue afternoon of my childhood.”

“The past is another land, and we cannot go to visit. So, if I say there were dragons, and men who rode upon their backs, who alive has been there and can tell me that I'm wrong?”

“Always sailing, sailing, sailing...never quite reaching.”

“Wartihog put up his hand. "What happens if we can't read, sir?""No boasting, Wartihog!" boomed Gobber. "Get some idiot to read it for you.”

“The past haunts the present in more ways than we think. It certainly scares the living daylights out of ME"~ Old Wrinkly”

“I NAME THIS LAND TOMORROW, FOR IT SHALL LAST FOREVERMORE!”

“That is a terrible plan.""Hiccup's plans are always t-terrible.""Hey! You're still here, aren't you?”

“He looked as frightened as I was. I looked at him, and I saw myself."1,080 rount”

“Sometimes it is only a True Friend who knows what we mean when we try to speak. Somebody who has spent a lot of time with us, and listens carefully to what we are trying to say, and tries to understand.”

“And now that its ruby eyes are set into the gold, you cannot see their tear-shape, so they seem to be laughing rather than crying. It is a constant reminder to me of the human ability to create something beautiful even when things are at the darkest.”

“A Chief must show no fear, no worry... A Chief is a leader first, and a man second...”

“The thing about grown ups is that they're always wanting you to be this Great Hero and Leader. What's wrong with being NORMAL, for Thor's sake? What's wrong with just being SO-SO at stuff? They're just totally unrealistic...”

“Remember, there is nothing wrong with a healthy sense of self-respect.”

“Betapapun kecilnya kita, kita harus memperjuangkan apa yang kita percayai. Bukan berjuang dengan kekuatan pedang atau kepalan tangan kita, tapi kekuatan otak dan pikiran dan mimpi kita.”

“Oh, for Thor's sake..." said Hiccup. "I thought that was just a story...""Stories come from somewhere," said the witch. "The past haunts the present in more ways than we realise.”

“GO FOR HIS EYES! OR BITE HIM ON THE NOSE! DRAGON NOSES ARE VERY SENSITIVE!"Oh, very helpful, Camicazi, very helpful...thought Hiccup. What if he doesn't obligingly hold me up to his nose? What if the only part I get close to is the TEETH?”

“I was not a natural. . . . This is the story of becoming . . . the Hard Way.”

“There's no such thing as im-POSSIBLE, Hiccup, only im-PROBABLE. The only thing that limits us are the limits to our imagination”

“We're all snatching precious moments from the peaceful jaws of time.”

“I forget myself sometimes, but then I look up, as I am looking up now, and I see in my mind's eye a sheild, strangely changed by a rich encrusting of jewel-like barnacles and cold-water coral, with an eight foot tooth sticking right out of the middle of it. I reach out and the edge of that tooth is still so bitingly sharp after all these years that just a gentle brush with the fingers might send a rain of blood down on these pages. And I bend my head, not too close, and I am sure I can hear, very faintly:Once I set the sea alightWith a single fiery breath....Once I was so mighty that I thoughtMy name was Death....Sing out loud until you're eaten,Song of melancholy blisss,For the mighty and the middlingAll shall come to THIS....The Supper is still singing.”

“Twelve days north of Hopeless and a few degrees south of Freezing to Death”

“Thank you for nothing, you stupid reptile.”

“But then I have always been somewhat of a square peg in a round hole.”