Daniel Handler Quotes - Page 12

Having a personal philosophy is like having a pet marmoset, because it may be very attractive when you acquire it, but there may be situations when it will not come in handy at all.

So you’re reluctant, I said to myself. Many, many people are reluctant. It’s like having feet. It’s nothing to brag about.

In the secret pocket, she often kept a small pocket dictionary, which she would take out whenever she encountered a word she did not know.

It looked like something the Hemlock needed, or a piece of equipment a plumber had left behind. It looked like none of your business.

In this book, not only is there no happy ending, there is no happy beginning and very few happy things in the middle.

But the law is an odd thing. For instance, one country in Europe has a law that requires all its bakers to sell bread at the exact same price. A certain island has a law that forbids anyone from removing its fruit. And a town not too far from where you live has a law that bars me from coming within five miles of its borders.

...that's not why we broke up. I love it, I miss it, I hate to give it back to you, this complicated thing, it's why we stayed together

I stand entwined in fire on the inextinguishable bonfire of inconceivable love.

There is no way of knowing for sure whether or not you can trust someone, for the simple reason that circumstances change all of the time.

Every problem has a solution. Sometimes it just takes a long time to find the solution - even if it's right in front of your nose.

In times of extreme stress, one can often find energy hidden in even the most exhausted areas of the body.

It is true, of course, that there is no way of knowing for sure whether or not you can trust someone, for the simple reason that circumstances change all of the time. You might know someone for several years, for instance, and trust him completely as your friend, but circumstances could change and he could become very hungry, and before you knew it you could be boiling in a soup pot, because there is no way of knowing for sure.

I didn't realize this was a sad occasion.

The worst surroundings in the world can be tolerated if the people in them are interesting and kind.

I think we'll always miss our parents. But I think we can miss them without being miserable all the time. After all, they wouldn't want us to be miserable.

You must be all a-tingle with excitement.' 'I guess so,' I said, but I did not feel a-tingle. I did not feel a-anything.

The library was one enormous room, with long, high metal shelves and the perfect quiet that libraries provide for anyone looking for an answer.

Literature doesn’t exactly have a strong mental-health track record.

They say in every library there is a single book that can answer the question that burns like a fire in the mind.

Don’t repeat yourself. It’s not only repetitive, it’s redundant, and people have heard it before.

The real Santa Claus is at the mall.

A mystery is solved with a story.

With a library it is easier to hope for serendipity than to look for a precise answer.

It is very easy to say that the important thing is to try your best, but if you are in real trouble the most important thing is not trying your best, but getting to safety.

For Beatrice, I cherished, you perished, The world's been nightmarished.