It is always interesting to observe what people are wearing in the middle of the night, although there are more pleasant ways to make such observations without being accused of murder.
Don’t talk, Snicket,” Theodora said. “Fools talk while wise people listen, so listen up and I’ll tell you how we will solve this case sensibly and properly.
If you ask one question, it will lead you to another, and another. It’s like peeling an onion.
I’m not a math tutor,” I said. “I don’t feel the need to check your work.
Sometimes, when you are reading a book you are enjoying very much, you begin thinking so hard about the characters and the story that you might forget all about the author, even if he is in grave danger and would very much appreciate your help. The same thing can happen if you are looking at a photograph. You might think so hard about whatever is in the photograph that you forget all about the person behind the camera.
Fire is like greed, my comrade. It spreads across the world, thinking only of itself, seizing everything it sees, and ruining everyone’s fun.
I like a story that could never happen to me. If I want real life I’ll read a newspaper.
You might think that climbing a mountain is half the battle, only to find out that the mountain goats who live at the top are vicious, and heavily armed.
The rest of the place was ransacked, a word for something that is fun to do to someone else’s room, but no fun to have done to yours.
Asinine is a word that sounds like you shouldn’t say it, so when you do say it, people often gasp. This makes it a delicious way of saying ‘not very smart,’ which is all it means.
A very long time ago, my brother and I played a game each morning while we waited for the school bus to arrive. We called the game Beethoven, and my sister refused to play because she thought it was inane. “Inane” is a word which here means that my brother and I would pretend we couldn’t hear each other very well while we were talking.
I was in my favorite seat in the library, but it wasn’t helping me like the book any better. It was a book people kept putting in my hands and telling me I was going to love, the way the doctor tells you the needle won’t hurt a bit. The book began the way it always began before I gave up on it: with a man carrying around a drawing or a snake that had just eaten, and asking people what they thought of it. I thought it was no way to start up a conversation.
The sky was dark blue twilight, pretty to look at but lonely to walk under.
They are stupid, aren’t they?” Dr. Orwell agreed, as though they were talking about the weather instead of insulting young children.
In every other place on Earth, nobility and integrity are vanishing quickly.
But some secrets are so strange and so dangerous that showing them to people makes the strangeness and the danger pour into their lives like a dark, dark ink.
Why does anyone have a lot of rules? So they can boss people around, I guess.
It is unwise to make something permanent when the whole world is shifting.
In the meantime, it is best to grab what wonderful moments you find lying around.
Most field trips contain sinister plots.