Happy Jack Quotes

“You have to be a best friend to yourself. If you hate yourself then everyone else will see that and they won’t like you either. You have to be your own best friend. You can rely on yourself, Jack. You can trust yourself. That’s the secret. When you blame everyone else for your bad luck, it takes away your power to help yourself.”
― Jacqueline Edgington, Happy Jack

“Look into the pool of water, Jack. That’s where the lies disappear. They can’t live in the water because water is transparent. That is where truth is revealed.”
― Jacqueline Edgington, Happy Jack

“You have to be a best friend to yourself. If you hate yourself then everyone else will see that and they won’t like you either. You have to be your own best friend. You can rely on yourself, Jack. You can trust yourself. That’s the secret. When you blame everyone else for your bad luck, it takes away your power to help yourself.”
― Jacqueline Edgington, Happy Jack

“You can blame your difficulties on your parents, but every time you do, it’s like sitting in mud. Each time you blame, you sink a little further until you get stuck. When you get stuck, you can’t act to make things better. You won’t become anything if you keep blaming. You’ll always be stuck in the mud. But when you stop blaming, then you can act. You can act like people do in fairy tales. You can write your own lines. You can create your own story.”
― Jacqueline Edgington, Happy Jack

“Tis good to laugh. Yer gotta laugh and laugh out loud,” said the leprechaun. “You can cry if you want to but laughin’s better.”
― Jacqueline Edgington, Happy Jack

“They are called stuckerpillers because they get stuck together. They depend so much on each other even when they become unhappy living together. They can’t leave each other because they’ve become one. They lose their own identity and then they get confused. They become helpless. When one stuckerpiller wants to go in one direction and the other stuckerpiller wants to go in the opposite direction, they end up pulling against each other, never really getting anywhere.”
― Jacqueline Edgington, Happy Jack

“Did I hurt you? Or are you just feeling hurt? They are two different things, Jack. When we lie to ourselves, the lies will surface so we can feel them. Lies never lie low. It’s the lie that hurts because it’s hiding the truth.”
― Jacqueline Edgington, Happy Jack

“When your mind is distracted with all these game machines, you become mindless. When you don’t think, your mind becomes blank. You don’t use your imagination anymore. You don’t plan and you stop looking forward. Television can do the same thing if you’re not careful. It can stop you from using your mind. When you stop using your mind, you chug along on the Mindless Express going nowhere. You forget to look at how beautiful the world is. Your energy flows where your attention goes and then drains away until nothing is left. The more you play with machines, the less you play in the world around you. Eventually, your world disappears because you’ve forgotten about it. You wake up one day and find it all gone. It’s too late. You’ve wasted your time on the Mindless Express. You lose your chance to make a difference in the world. Your story never gets told.”
― Jacqueline Edgington, Happy Jack

“Ahimsa smiled at the confused boy. He knew he had fed Jack impossible questions and because of it, he knew Jack would remain hungry. Ahimsa understood that this was his real purpose, the reason why he existed: To keep Jack hungry for answers. He never intended to cause Jack any hurt. Quite the opposite. He wanted to make Jack feel real—more real than he had ever felt in his whole life. That was the gift Ahimsa wanted to give to Jack, even if it wasn’t yet Christmas in Dhyāna Land. He knew it was the best gift Jack would ever receive: the gift of wonder, the gift of curiosity.”
― Jacqueline Edgington, Happy Jack

“How do you know? How do you know you’re a real boy? You might be a story in a book,” Ahimsa challenged. “That’s it! You’re a Jack-in-the-Book and only pop out when the pages are opened,” he scoffed.”
― Jacqueline Edgington, Happy Jack

“People celebrate you once a year and then they forget about you. It’s like you’re a story in a book and once the story has been read, the words disappear with the closing of the book until another year jogs their memory and they remember you existed. I only existed when people noticed me at Christmas, especially the kids. You’d think that was the only reason I existed. It’s like I had no other purpose. They didn’t even know my name. Who gets to decide my fate for me? I do have a free will you know,” said Ahimsa continuing his rant.”
― Jacqueline Edgington, Happy Jack

“You have to forgive yourself. Everyone does something that needs forgiveness. It’s impossible to live a life where you don’t have to say you’re sorry. But the most important person to say sorry to is yourself.”
― Jacqueline Edgington, Happy Jack

“If you don’t have a history, then you can’t have a future.”
― Jacqueline Edgington, Happy Jack

“And whether you fall in or dive in, it’s good to get wet now and again. If you never got wet, you’d never learn how to swim.”
― Jacqueline Edgington, Happy Jack

“You can only know how you feel. You can feel angry and sad, happy or mad. Your feelings can teach you a lot. But you’re more than your feelings, Jack. You can be anything you want to be.”
― Jacqueline Edgington, Happy Jack

“There are many lies of all shapes and sizes. No one can hide behind a lie, especially the big ones. The bigger they are, the heavier they get until a person is weighed down so much, they can’t get up again.”
― Jacqueline Edgington, Happy Jack

“We never forget; a fox will always be a sly fox. A skunk will continue to be a smelly skunk, and a rabbit will continue to hop. Even a hedgehog will prick you if you get too close. Everyone lives up to their true nature but you’re different, Jack. You can think. You can think about what it is you want to be, and then you can become how you think.”
― Jacqueline Edgington, Happy Jack

“If you cannot remember your dreams, then you cannot find the good things.”
― Jacqueline Edgington, Happy Jack

“There are predators in these woods. There are sly foxes, mean skunks and rabbits that will skip out on you when you need them the most. The only way to be safe is to learn who you are; then, you can become who you want to be.”
― Jacqueline Edgington, Happy Jack

“Life by its very nature is a challenge. It’s just like going to school. You learn and then you’re tested. If you don’t understand what you’ve learnt, you must retake the test, maybe over and over again until you begin to understand. It’s called life’s lessons in a school of rainy days and bright sunshine. The more you learn and become aware, the easier it is for you to forecast what lies ahead. It’s called intuition.”
― Jacqueline Edgington, Happy Jack

“He felt your eyes reading these words on this page, trying to fathom out his story. He knew deep down that only he could live his story, not you. Your eyes looking into his dream have their own story. Your story that only you can truly experience because it’s seen with your eyes and told with your voice.”
― Jacqueline Edgington, Happy Jack

“As he punched a hole in each ticket, the conductor shared the fact that a young girl once spent a fortnight on the train before it came to a stop.
“What’s a fortnight?” asked Jack.
“Two weeks; you know, fourteen nights,” responded Petucan.
“Wow. That’s a long time to be sitting on a train. What did she find to do in a fortnight?” quizzed Jack.
“She found plenty to do to kill time. Eat up and enjoy the ride,” smiled the conductor”
― Jacqueline Edgington, Happy Jack

“Everyone has a ticket to wherever they want to go. All they have to do is know where they are going. If you don’t know where you’re going, you can’t go where you want. That’s the ticket.”
― Jacqueline Edgington, Happy Jack

“Of course, you have a ticket,” the conductor replied. “Everyone has a ticket to wherever they want to go.”
― Jacqueline Edgington, Happy Jack

“He heard the boy conclude that all the fish were nice because they never tasted salty. They always remained fresh even though they lived in a salty sea. “Perhaps we can all learn a thing or two from a fish,” mused Jack”
― Jacqueline Edgington, Happy Jack

“He thought of the fish they had caught. “Can a fish ask themselves if they are real or not?” he pondered. Were they real because he had eaten one? He wondered what had become of the fish he had eaten. Was the fish now a part of him or was he what he ate? Was he a part of a fish? It was all so perplexing. Just like a mysterious dream in a children’s book.”
― Jacqueline Edgington, Happy Jack

“He wondered why he felt real. He knew he was but how did he know? What was it that made him so sure? What was it he felt deep down inside of him? And then the answer came.
The answer lay in the question. He was real because he could ask himself that question. If he wasn’t real, he couldn’t ask himself if he was real or not. He wouldn’t even be able to think about it if it wasn’t true. That’s what made him real, he thought. There was more to him than just his reflection in a mirror. There was something beneath his skin. Something that could listen to his thoughts. Something that was more.”
― Jacqueline Edgington, Happy Jack

“Well, my book is real,” affirmed Ahimsa as he hugged his book of Christmas carols like a sacred bible. “So, if Santa is written in there, which he IS, then he’s real too! Santa exists just like ink on a page exists, so there!”
“Well, I’ve never seen him,” argued Jack.
“And I’ve never seen a thought, but I can think!” Ahimsa shot back.”
― Jacqueline Edgington, Happy Jack

“Don’t jump to conclusions,” scolded Ahimsa as he wiped away a stray tear. “I’m happy I was thrown away. I love it here. I kicked off my shoes and lost my sock on purpose. I knew if I did, I’d get thrown out. People don’t like to keep things that are incomplete.”
― Jacqueline Edgington, Happy Jack

“What were you before you were a monkey?” asked Jack.
With a smile, Petucan answered, “First I was a thought. Then I became words in a book. Now, I’m part of a story in a dream or maybe I’m a dream in a story. But to you, I’m a stuffed monkey and now I’m your friend. We all have lots of labels. But the secret is, we can be anything we want to be. You can be alone, Jack, but you don’t have to be lonely.”
― Jacqueline Edgington, Happy Jack