“Being a hero means ignoring how silly you feel.”

“I'll show you how," Peter said. "Stop hiding behind your ignorance.”

“Every man in Ingary is scared stiff of her. You ought to know how that feels, Sophie dear.”

“I don’t think I will get married,” Polly said as she stood up. “I’m going to train to be a hero instead.”

“Do you mind not being so kind and obedient? It makes me nervous.”

“But I do think that when people say 'a learning curve,' they make a mistake. Learning to me always seems to go in a straight, ignorant line and then, every so often, takes a jump straight upward.”

“As she turned left to the gateway, it occurred to her that swimming was only one of a very large number of things she had no idea what to do. Peter had been right to object to her ignorance. "It's not that I'm lazy," she explained to Waif as they arrived in what seemed to be stables, "or stupid. I've just not bothered to look round the edges of Mother's way of doing things, you see.”