In the old tales, kindness is the purest form of heroism. Find the character who meets the world with a big heart and an open hand and you have found your hero or heroine.
-- Jacob Grimm (chapter 1)

Importance: This quote occurs very early in the novel, spoken by the second most important character as well as narrator. He sets the stage for this novel as a fairy-tale, labeling it's protagonist, Jeremy Johnson, as the classic kind individual about whom fairy-tales are written. This quote is important as it draws the link between the real world and the fairy-tale from the very start of the novel, making the parallels between the books that Jacob Grimm had written and the story that he is about to narrate very obvious.

To be truthful, Mrs. Truax made everyone somewhat uneasy. Hers was a sad story, full of dark corners and odd circumstances. Long ago her son, Possy, only...
-- Jacob Grimm (chapter 1)