In our September issue, you can take our quiz to find out which Roald Dahl character you are most like. While we were doing the quiz ourselves, it occurred to us just how much sense many of Dahl’s characters speak, and how much of that wisdom chimes with all the things we try to fill The Simple Things’ pages with each month. Here are ten life lessons from Dahl Land that we think will help you live a simpler and better life.
Be curious
‘There are a whole lot of things in this world of ours you haven’t started wondering about yet.’
James and the Giant Peach
Enjoy armchair travel
‘The books transported her into new worlds and introduced her to amazing people who lived exciting lives. She went on olden-day sailing ships with Joseph Conrad. She went to Africa with Ernest Hemingway and to India with Rudyard Kipling. She travelled all over the world while sitting in her little room in an English village.’
Matilda
Believe in magic
‘Above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.’
Billy and the Minpins
Think good thoughts
‘A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.’
The Twits
Read more books
‘So please, oh please, we beg, we pray, go throw your TV set away, and in its place you can install a lovely bookshelf on the wall. Then fill the shelves with lots of books.’
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Cherish silliness
‘A little nonsense now and then, is cherished by the wisest men.’
Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator
Throw yourself into what you love
‘I began to realise how important it was to be an enthusiast in life. He taught me that if you are interested in something, no matter what it is, go at it at full speed ahead. Embrace it with both arms, hug it, love it, and above all become passionate about it. Lukewarm is no good. Hot is no good either. White hot and passionate is the only thing to be.’
My Uncle Oswald
Suspend your disbelief
‘The matter with human beans,’ the BFG went on, ‘is that they is absolutely refusing to believe anything unless they is actually seeing it right in front of their own schnozzles.’
The BFG
Retain a sense of childish wonder
‘Never grow up,’ she said, ‘always down.‘
George’s Marvellous Medicine
Travel widely, especially within your own imagination
‘That’s why they alway put two blank pages at the back of the atlas. They’re for new countries. You’re meant to fill them in yourself.’
The BFG
You can take the Which Roald Dahl Character Are You quiz in our September issue from page 37, and if you feel like dressing up as your Dahl character, Roald Dahl day is on 13 September.
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