One of the most troublesome things in life is that what you do or do not want has very little to do with what does or does not happen.... But the sad truth is that the truth is sad, and that what you want does not matter. A series of unfortunate events can happen to anyone, no matter what they want....


Lemony Snicket

  Email Quote to Friends   Link to Quote   Create Short URL  Publish Text About This Quote   Share on Facebook, Twitter, and more
  See Recommended Quotes For You

Related

But the sad truth is that the truth is sad, and that what you want does not matter. A series of unfo...
LEMONY SNICKET
Stand for something. Make your life mean something. Start where you are with what you have. You are ...
GERMANY KENT
Wanting something badly even though it could hurt you," Bentley repeated. He looked up at the ceilin...
NELLIE CHRISTINE
The sad fact is that spending rises every year, no matter what people want or say they want.
BEN STEIN
I can't tell you what that little ingredient is which makes that first person want to go on and ...
SAM DONALDSON
Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again and bring their friends.
~WALT DISNEY
It does not matter whatsoever, what the people around you think you can or cannot do. What really ma...
ABHIJIT NASKAR
Don't do what you want. Do what you don't want. Do what you're trained not to want. Do the things th...
CHUCK PALAHNIUK
Szerzetesek, vannak tanulatlan, közönséges emberek, akik nem gondolnak a nemes dolgokkal, nem hal...
GAUTAMA BUDDHA
És Brahmá, a Teremtő, felső ruháját fél vállán átvetve, összetett kézzel meghajolt a Mag...
GAUTAMA BUDDHA
What I want to do with my filmmaking is help kids experience the truth and wisdom of nature no matte...
LOUIE SCHWARTZBERG
He thought himself awake when he was already asleep. He saw the stars above his face, whirling on th...
T.H. WHITE
If you want to do something, what does it matter where you are ranked?
KALPANA CHAWLA
It doesn't matter how much you want. What really matters is how much you want it. The extent and com...
RALPH MARSTON
What Fucks me... is that we both are the same... we all walk on the same path... but everything is a...
DEYTH BANGER
You don't tell an astronaut what to do.
ATMOSPHERE
Then why do you want to know?"

"Because learning does not consist only of knowing what we...
UMBERTO ECO
Don’t waste your time trying to impress others to satisfy their ego. do what you love & love what ...
DR ANIL KUMAR SINHA
Sooner or later, what you do will speak
SOTONYE ANGA
You do not merely want to be considered just the best of the best. You want to be considered the onl...
JERRY GARCIA
So, tomorrow, I'm leaving. And I'm not going to let that happen again with anyone else. I'm going to...
STEPHEN CHBOSKY
What do I want?
The answer to that question does not exist.
LAURIE HALSE ANDERSON
How do you know if something is real? That’s easy. Does it change you? Does it form you? Does it g...
C. JOYBELL C.
What matters is the one thing I do know for certain: God is with me.
CRAIG GROESCHEL
What happens to other people does not necessarily will happen to you.
DANIEL MELGAçO
Ques eso? Queso?
NOLAN J. VANDER HAAGEN
Of what good, is a truth that may harm someone and does no good to anyone?Of what bad, is a lie that...
ANUROOP TYAGI
Of what good, is a truth that may harm someone and does no good to anyone? Of what bad, is a lie tha...
ANUROOP TYAGI
Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen that s...
JANE AUSTEN
Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen that s...
JANE AUSTEN
The sad truth is that certain types of things can't go backward. Once they start going forward, no m...
HARUKI MURAKAMI
We both know... that soon everything is going to end...

...
This chat will be in the...
DEYTH BANGER
No matter how little things are in life, you should always try to do the best you can, because you n...
PATRICIA VELASQUEZ
There are reasons people seek escape in books, and one of those reasons is that the boundary of what...
JAMES PATTERSON
Hajime," she began, "the sad truth is that some things can't go backwards. Once they start going for...
HARUKI MURAKAMI
There are no do overs and some things just aren't going to happen. It is a little sad but you just h...
GRETCHEN RUBIN
Do not seek to have events happen as you want them to, but instead want them to happen as they do ha...
EPICTETUS
The correctness and quality of what you write do not matter; the act of writing does.
NATALIE GOLDBERG
Millions of people acknowledge today that they do not know the meaning of life.
JAMES C. DOBSON
Do it no matter what. If you believe in it, it is something very honorable. If somebody around you o...
MARIO ANDRETTI
Think of it." Now he is speaking to you, no one but you. "It may not matter what we want for science...
STEPHEN KIERNAN
Focus on your work. Do what you're great at. Don't compare yourself to others and or waste time crit...
GERMANY KENT
It is so hard to be a girl and want what you have never had. To be a child and want what you cannot ...
DOROTHY ALLISON
Censorship is the thing that stops you doing what you want to do, and what writers want to talk abou...
SALMAN RUSHDIE
At the time you are most vulnerable, you want to make sure people know what you want to have happen ...
GARY SCHATSKY
How do you love your children?
By doing what's best for them.
Then how would you love your...
J. GRANT HOWARD
It does not matter where you go and what you study, what matters most is what you share with yoursel...
SANTOSH KALWAR
She buys "mixed salad greens" for seven dollars a bag, triple-washed with who knows what. And to get...
RUDOLPH DELSON
Each of us views life through a different lens. What we think is colored by the baggage we carry, an...
LAURIE BUCHANAN, PHD
Now is the time when you see people which you know... but they start ignoring you... and how do you ...
DEYTH BANGER
Be a good guide, tell me what you see, are sure is that?
Please try to describe the picture as ...
DEYTH BANGER
If you have read this far in the chronicle of the Baudelaire orphans - and I certainly hope you have...
LEMONY SNICKET
I want to show everyone that if you pursue your dreams, they can come true no matter what. That'...
MARTIN GARRIX
Learn the lesson that, if you are to do the work of a prophet, what you want is not a sceptre, but a...
SAINT BERNARD
I try to explain to people that the only way to be cool is to be who you truly are, and the only way...
TUCKER MAX
If you keep thinking about what you want to do or what you hope will happen, you don't do it, and it...
JOE DIMAGGIO
If you keep thinking about what you want to do or what you hope will happen, you don't do it, and it...
DESIDERIUS ERASMUS
In the tabloid age, people think that they can say what they want. This is not (covered) by free spe...
CAROL THORP
Responsibility begins with the willingness to be cause in the matter of one's life. Ultimately, it i...
WERNER ERHARD
Do it no matter what. If you believe in it, it is something very honorable. If somebody around you o...
MARIO ANDRETTI
Being able to do what you wish is the best thing in the world!
SHIRO AMANO
How are you expected to love life, if life does not love you in return.All we can do is clear away t...
GARY F EVANS...
In life, it is not a case of what you want but more like what you would like in a case of any decisi...
GARY F EVANS...
Life will move on whether you want or not,what you can do is try to fit in with ur brain
OMAR ASHRAF EZZELDIN
Never neglect the little things. Never skimp on that extra effort, that additional few minutes, that...
OG MANDINO
Depression is internal. The upswings and downswings have pretty much nothing to do with what's g...
GRAHAM MOORE
What we had to do in doubles was play basic, solid tennis. The main thing with a lot of new kids is ...
DOUG CHAPMAN
28. Feelings are neither right nor wrong. It's what you do with them that causes the problems.
JAMES C. DOBSON
What is faith, if not an acceptance that there are things out there that cannot be explained?
<...
IAN THOMAS MALONE
Empathy is the new measurement of everything. It doesn't matter what religion you have, what God you...
C. JOYBELL C.
Do what you love doing.
JULIANNA MARGULIES
You can choose to be happy or sad and whichever you choose that is what you get. No one is really re...
SIDNEY MADWED
. . . the great thing to learn about life is, first, not to do what you don't want to do, and, secon...
MARGARET ANDERSON
A righteous man does not conceive of himself as righteous; he is "only doing what anyone else would ...
MARTIN BERMAN-GORVINE
No matter how badly senators want to know things, judicial nominees are limited in what they may dis...
ORRIN HATCH
I want to do to you what spring does with the cherry trees.
PABLO NERUDA
There is a lot of absurdity sometimes, not just in Mormonism but often in other religions that want ...
NEIL LABUTE
Nothing is as important as passion. No matter what you want to do with your life, be passionate.
JON BON JOVI
The most daring thing is to be yourself and to do exactly what you want to do at that point in time ...
WIZ KHALIFA
I want to be clear here: It does not matter what you say in your will or trust; the beneficiary docu...
SUZE ORMAN
A white lie is not a lie at all. It is where you tell the truth but you do not tell all of the truth...
MARK HADDON
No matter the truth, people see what they want to see..
CECILY VON ZIEGESAR
That was definitely pressure. You always want to win no matter what you do, whether it's a real game...
JODIE MEEKS
No matter what as an artist that's always what you want to do, you want to connect to the audien...
NAIMA ADEDAPO
When push comes to shove would people do what they felt was right, to get justice done or would they...
GARY F EVANS...
Is it then that they do not ponder over what is said, or is it that there has come to them that whic...
QURAN
It does not matter if am rich or not, I am happy, because I enjoy what I do. This is actually the ma...
SUNDAY ADELAJA
You want what you want and they want what they want, but God does what He wants.
VIKRANT PARSAI
Do not cry for anyone who walks out of your life. Be thankful for the people who sticks to your side...
DOMONIC GORDINE
Think of the long view of life, not just what's going to happen today or tomorrow. Don't give up wha...
ELDER RICHARD G. SCOTT
We all are wearing many hundred glasses of different colors. Therefore, everyone sees the world in d...
MUDITHA CHAMPIKA
What is it that makes you so angry, bothers you so deeply, that you're compelled to act?
CRAIG GROESCHEL
Is discord going to show itself while we are still fighting, is the Jew once again worth less than a...
ANNE FRANK
Is discord going to show itself while we are still fighting, is the Jew once again worth less than a...
ANNE FRANK
It does not matter to the killers if their victims are Christian or Muslim, Hindu or Humanist; what ...
ROWAN WILLIAMS
If you're confused about what to do,
it's a sign that your enemy is winning.
TOBA BETA
Is your life story the truth? Yes, the chronological events are true. Is it the whole truth? No, you...
RASHEED OGUNLARU
It's not what you want in this life, it's what you get that you have to do with.
ELIZABETH ASTON
Faith in the possibilities of continued and rigorous inquiry does not limit access to truth to any c...
JOHN DEWEY
How sad, a heart that
does not know how to love, that
does not know what it is to be drunk...
OMAR KHAYYáM

More Lemony Snicket

People aren't either wicked or noble. They're like chef's salads, with good things and bad things ch...
LEMONY SNICKET
At times the world may seem an unfriendly and sinister place, but believe that there is much more go...
LEMONY SNICKET
With a library it is easier to hope for serendipity than to look for a precise answer.
LEMONY SNICKET
There is no easy way to train an apprentice. My two tools are example and nagging.
LEMONY SNICKET
Criminals should be punished, not fed pastries.
LEMONY SNICKET
Everyone should be able to do one card trick, tell two jokes, and recite three poems, in case they a...
LEMONY SNICKET
Wishing, like sipping a glass of punch, or pulling aside a bearskin rug in order to access a hidden ...
LEMONY SNICKET
Sometimes when someone tells a ridiculous lie, it is best to ignore it entirely.
LEMONY SNICKET
Temper tantrums, however fun they may be to throw, rarely solve whatever problem is causing them.
LEMONY SNICKET
The way sadness works is one of the strangest riddles of the world.
LEMONY SNICKET
One of the most difficult things to think about in life is one’s regrets. Something will happen to...
LEMONY SNICKET
It is so rare in this world to meet a trustworthy person who truly wants to help you, and finding su...
LEMONY SNICKET
There are those who say that life is like a book, with chapters for each event in your life and a li...
LEMONY SNICKET
Shyness is a curious thing, because, like quicksand, it can strike people at any time, and also, lik...
LEMONY SNICKET
Just because something is traditional is no reason to do it, of course. Piracy, for example, is a tr...
LEMONY SNICKET
In most cases, the best strategy for a job interview is to be fairly honest, because the worst thing...
LEMONY SNICKET
But there are times in this harum-scarum world when figuring out the right thing to do is quite simp...
LEMONY SNICKET
Siblings that say they never fight are most definitely hiding something
LEMONY SNICKET
One of the remarkable things about love is that, despite very irritating people writing poems and so...
LEMONY SNICKET
Most schools have a loud system of loud bells, which startle the students and teachers at regular in...
LEMONY SNICKET
Sometimes words are not enough.
LEMONY SNICKET
Unless you have been very, very lucky, you have undoubtedly experienced events in your life that hav...
LEMONY SNICKET
Entertaining a notion, like entertaining a baby cousin or entertaining a pack of hyenas, is a danger...
LEMONY SNICKET
A library is like an island in the middle of a vast sea of ignorance, particularly if the library is...
LEMONY SNICKET
If an optimist had his left arm chewed off by an alligator, he might say in a pleasant and hopeful v...
LEMONY SNICKET
There are times to stay put, and what you want will come to you, and there are times to go out into ...
LEMONY SNICKET
It is always sad when someone leaves home, unless they are simply going around the corner and will r...
LEMONY SNICKET
When someone is crying, of course, the noble thing to do is to comfort them. But if someone is tryin...
LEMONY SNICKET
A good library will never be too neat, or too dusty, because somebody will always be in it, taking b...
LEMONY SNICKET
If writers wrote as carelessly as some people talk, then adhasdh asdglaseuyt[bn[ pasdlgkhasdfasdf.
LEMONY SNICKET
It is a curious thing, the death of a loved one. We all know that our time in this world is limited,...
LEMONY SNICKET
It is difficult, when faced with a situation you cannot control, to admit you can do nothing.
LEMONY SNICKET
Just because you don't understand it doesn't mean it isn't so.
LEMONY SNICKET
Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.
LEMONY SNICKET
The world is quiet here.
LEMONY SNICKET
Miracles are like pimples, because once you start looking for them you find more than you ever dream...
LEMONY SNICKET
Deciding whether or not to trust a person is like deciding whether or not to climb a tree because yo...
LEMONY SNICKET
Today was a very cold and bitter day, as cold and bitter as a cup of hot chocolate, if the cup of ho...
LEMONY SNICKET
Fate is like a strange, unpopular restaurant filled with odd little waiters who bring you things you...
LEMONY SNICKET
It is very unnerving to be proven wrong, particularly when you are really right and the person who i...
LEMONY SNICKET
The expression 'Those who can't do, teach' is a curious one, because if you look at the world , you'...
LEMONY SNICKET
Miracles are like meatballs, because nobody can exactly agree on what they are made of, where they c...
LEMONY SNICKET
Wicked people never have time for reading. It's one of the reasons for their wickedness.
LEMONY SNICKET
it is a sad truth in life that when someone has lost a loved one, friends sometimes avoid the person...
LEMONY SNICKET
Love can change a person the way a parent can change a baby- awkwardly, and often with a great deal ...
LEMONY SNICKET
Everyone, at some point in their lives, wakes up in the middle of the night with the feeling that th...
LEMONY SNICKET
Some of the bravest and most resourceful people in the world have come to bad ends
LEMONY SNICKET
The sea is nothing but a library of all the tears in history.
LEMONY SNICKET
The key to good eavesdropping is not getting caught.
LEMONY SNICKET
A successful villain should have all these things at his or her villainous fingertips, or else give ...
LEMONY SNICKET
The difference between a house and a home is like the difference between a man and a woman-- it migh...
LEMONY SNICKET
People don't always get what they deserve in this world.
LEMONY SNICKET
Reader: Dear Mr. Snicket, What is the best way to keep a secret? Lemony Snicket : Tell it to everyon...
LEMONY SNICKET
The right hand doesn’t know what the left is doing” is a phrase that refers to times when people...
LEMONY SNICKET
If you were smart," Genghis said, "you would have borrowed the silverware of one of your friends." LEMONY SNICKET Instead of the word 'love' there was an enormous heart, a symbol sometimes used by people who have t...
LEMONY SNICKET
For some stories, it's easy. The moral of 'The Three Bears,' for instance, is "Never break into some...
LEMONY SNICKET
The world is too quiet without you nearby.
LEMONY SNICKET
The end of THE END is the best place to begin THE END, because if you read THE END from the beginnin...
LEMONY SNICKET
Even though there are no ways of knowing for sure, there are ways of knowing for pretty sure.
LEMONY SNICKET
Like a church bell, a coffin, and a vat of melted chocolate, a supply closet is rarely a comfortable...
LEMONY SNICKET
A new experience can be extremely pleasurable, or extremely irritating, or somewhere in between, and...
LEMONY SNICKET
Just because something is traditional is no reason to do it, of course.
LEMONY SNICKET
It is terribly rude to tell people that their troubles are boring.
LEMONY SNICKET
Morning is an important time of day, because how you spend your morning can often tell you what kind...
LEMONY SNICKET
To hear the phrase "our only hope" always makes one anxious, because it means that if the only hope ...
LEMONY SNICKET
Blinded following the Blindfolded
LEMONY SNICKET
Whenever you are examining someone else's belongings, you are bound to learn many interesting things...
LEMONY SNICKET
He looked like the sort of person who would tell you that he did not have an umbrella to lend you wh...
LEMONY SNICKET
I am heartbroken, but I have been heartbroken before, and this might be the best for which I can hop...
LEMONY SNICKET
It is easy to decide on what is wrong to wear to a party, such as deep-sea diving equipment or a pai...
LEMONY SNICKET
You would run much slower if you were dragging something behind you, like a knapsack or a sheriff.
LEMONY SNICKET
It is one of life's bitterest truths that bedtime so often arrives just when things are really getti...
LEMONY SNICKET
All the secrets of the world are contained in books. Read at your own risk.
LEMONY SNICKET
I suppose I'll have to add the force of gravity to my list of enemies.
LEMONY SNICKET
You don't spend your life hanging around books without learning a thing or two.
LEMONY SNICKET
If you are a student you should always get a good nights sleep unless you have come to the good part...
LEMONY SNICKET
Are you ready?" Klaus asked finally.
"No," Sunny answered.
"Me neither," Violet said, "but...
LEMONY SNICKET
It is useless for me to describe to you how terrible Violet, Klaus, and even Sunny felt in the time ...
LEMONY SNICKET
I don't know if you've ever noticed this, but first impressions are often entirely wrong.
LEMONY SNICKET
Yo no sé si os habréis dado cuenta, pero a menudo las primeras impresiones son absolutamente equiv...
LEMONY SNICKET
Pero un tipo de libro que a casi nadie le gusta leer es un libro sobre leyes. Los libros sobre leyes...
LEMONY SNICKET
Así pues, a menos que hayáis sido muy, muy afortunados, sabréis que una buena y larga sesión de ...
LEMONY SNICKET
Hay muchos, muchos tipos de libros en el mundo, lo cual tiene sentido porque hay muchas, muchas clas...
LEMONY SNICKET
Read about things that wouldn't keep you up all night long, weeping and tearing out your hair.
LEMONY SNICKET
There are few sights sadder than a ruined book.
LEMONY SNICKET
There are many, many types of books in the world, which makes good sense, because there are many, ma...
LEMONY SNICKET
The way sadness works is one of the strange riddles of the world. If you are stricken with a great s...
LEMONY SNICKET
They didn't understand it, but like so many unfortunate events in life, just because you don't under...
LEMONY SNICKET
...you know that a good, long session of weeping can often make you feel better, even if your circum...
LEMONY SNICKET
What happens in a certain place can stain your feelings for that location, just as ink can stain a w...
LEMONY SNICKET
Sometimes, even in the most unfortunate of lives, there will occur a moment or two of good fortune.
LEMONY SNICKET
It is a curious thing, the death of a loved one. We all know that our time in this world is limited,...
LEMONY SNICKET
It is like walking up the stairs to your bedroom in the dark, and thinking there is one more stair t...
LEMONY SNICKET
One can remain alive long past the usual date of disintegration if one is unafraid of change, insati...
LEMONY SNICKET
Miracles are like meatballs, because nobody can exactly agree on what they are made of, where they c...
LEMONY SNICKET
I love no one but you, I have discovered, but you are far away and I am here alone. Then this is my ...
LEMONY SNICKET
I refuse to argue with you, Charles! You're my partner! Your job is to iron my shirts and cook my om...
LEMONY SNICKET
Keep anyone with whom you can read in silence.
LEMONY SNICKET
Reading is one form of escape. Running for your life is another.
LEMONY SNICKET
No matter who you are, no matter where you live, and no matter how many people are chasing you, what...
LEMONY SNICKET
Strange as it may seem, I still hope for the best, even though the best, like an interesting piece o...
LEMONY SNICKET
Arguing with somebody is never pleasant, but sometimes it is useful and necessary to do so.
LEMONY SNICKET
All his life, Klaus had believed that if you read enough books, you could solve any problem, but now...
LEMONY SNICKET
We believe in an aristocracy... Not an aristocracy of power, based on rank or wealth, but an aristoc...
LEMONY SNICKET
You write poetry?" Klaus asked.
He had read a lot about poets but had never met one.
"Just...
LEMONY SNICKET
Assumptions are dangerous things to make, and like all dangerous things to make -- bombs, for instan...
LEMONY SNICKET
Is it useful to feel fear, because it prepares you for nasty events, or is it useless, because nasty...
LEMONY SNICKET
There are many difficult things in this world to hide, but a secret is not one of them.
LEMONY SNICKET
Of course, it is quite possible to be in the dark in the dark, but there are so many secrets in the ...
LEMONY SNICKET
Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them
LEMONY SNICKET
I think we'll always miss our parents. But I think we can miss them without being miserable all the ...
LEMONY SNICKET
We are all told to ignore bullies. It's something they teach you, and they can teach you anything. I...
LEMONY SNICKET
It is one of the peculiar truths of life that people often say things that they know full well are r...
LEMONY SNICKET
Every new promise was like something heavy I had to carry, with no place to put anything down.
LEMONY SNICKET
We weren't friends[...]We were more like jigsaw pieces, each of us part of the same big picture. The...
LEMONY SNICKET
...in life it is often the tiny details that end up being the most important.
LEMONY SNICKET
Summer seems so cold without you, winter is even colder.
LEMONY SNICKET
...there's nothing wrong with occasionally staring out the window and thinking nonsense, as long as ...
LEMONY SNICKET
For Beatrice, when we met, my life began. Soon afterwards, yours ended.
LEMONY SNICKET
Get out of my way, you cakesniffers!” said a rude, violent, and filthy little girl, shoving the Ba...
LEMONY SNICKET
I will love you if I never see you again, and I will love you if I never see you again, and I will l...
LEMONY SNICKET
I know that having a good vocabulary doesn't guarantee that I'm a good person, but it does mean I've...
LEMONY SNICKET
I am alone this evening, and I am alone because of a cruel twist of fate, a phrase which here means ...
LEMONY SNICKET
The worst surroundings in the world can be tolerated if the people in them are interesting and kind.
LEMONY SNICKET
Someone feeling wronged is like someone feeling thirsty. Don’t tell them they aren’t. Sit with t...
LEMONY SNICKET
But I must admit I miss you terribly. The world is too quiet without you nearby.
LEMONY SNICKET
I will love you as a drawer loves a secret compartment, and as a secret compartment loves a secret, ...
LEMONY SNICKET
I will love you as we find ourselves farther and farther from one another, where we once were so clo...
LEMONY SNICKET
I will love you if you don’t marry me. I will love you if you marry someone else your co-star, per...
LEMONY SNICKET
It is a miracle if you can find true friends, and it is a miracle if you have enough food to eat, an...
LEMONY SNICKET
I will love you if I never see you again, and I will love you if I see you every Tuesday.
LEMONY SNICKET
Desperate times call for desperate measures" is an aphorism which here means "sometimes you need to ...
LEMONY SNICKET
In love, as in life, one misheard word can be tremendously important. If you tell someone you love t...
LEMONY SNICKET
Neither were you [born yesterday], unless of course I am wrong, in which case welcome to the world, ...
LEMONY SNICKET
One of the world's most tiresome questions is what object one would bring to a desert island,because...
LEMONY SNICKET
Having a personal philosophy is like having a pet marmoset, because it may be very attractive when y...
LEMONY SNICKET
Just about everything in this world is easier said than done, with the exception of "systematically ...
LEMONY SNICKET
Having an aura of menace is like having a pet weasel, because you rarely meet someone who has one, a...
LEMONY SNICKET
Sometimes, just saying that you hate something, and having someone agree with you, can make you feel...
LEMONY SNICKET
Grief, a type of sadness that most often occurs when you have lost someone you love, is a sneaky thi...
LEMONY SNICKET
I will love you as the iceberg loves the ship, and the passengers love the lifeboat and the lifeboat...
LEMONY SNICKET
An apocryphal story - the word "apocryphal" here means "obviously untrue" - tells of two people, lon...
LEMONY SNICKET
You may want to keep a commonplace book which is a notebook where you can copy parts of books you th...
LEMONY SNICKET
Everybody will die, but very few people want to be reminded of that fact.
LEMONY SNICKET
It is a curious thing, but as one travels the world getting older and older, it appears that happine...
LEMONY SNICKET
It is much, much worse to receive bad news through the written word than by somebody simply telling ...
LEMONY SNICKET
The hallway was lined with numbered doors, odd numbers on one side and even numbers on the other, an...
LEMONY SNICKET
Of course, it is boring to read about boring thing, but it is better to read something that makes yo...
LEMONY SNICKET
It is very useful, when one is young, to learn the difference between "literally" and "figuratively....
LEMONY SNICKET
I will love you as a thief loves a gallery and as a crow loves a murder, as a cloud loves bats and a...
LEMONY SNICKET
Of course I'm trying to trick you!" Olaf cried. "That's the way of the world, Baudelaires. Everybody...
LEMONY SNICKET
Appearance matters a great deal because you can often tell a lot about people by looking at how they...
LEMONY SNICKET
Aha!"

My chaperone looked at me like I should aha! back, but all I could m...
LEMONY SNICKET
Various parts of my body told me that in the future they would appreciate it if I slept lying down o...
LEMONY SNICKET
There was still plenty of water in the basement, and I felt it soaking me from the knees on down. If...
LEMONY SNICKET
It looked like something the Hemlock needed, or a piece of equipment a plumber had left behind. It l...
LEMONY SNICKET
But the world did not match the picture in my head, and instead I was with a strange, uncombed perso...
LEMONY SNICKET
They were almond cookies, although they could have been made of spinach and shoes for all I cared. I...
LEMONY SNICKET
It felt like the wrong thing to do, standing at the wrong door in the wrong place. We did it anyway....
LEMONY SNICKET
Stretched out in front of me was my time as an adult, and then a skeleton, and then nothing except p...
LEMONY SNICKET
It is always terrible to be told to go play with people one doesn’t know...
LEMONY SNICKET
The map is not the territory.
LEMONY SNICKET
I do what I do," I said, "in order to do something else.
LEMONY SNICKET
Nothing firms up a friendship like a good-natured argument.
LEMONY SNICKET
You must be all a-tingle with excitement.'
'I guess so,' I said, but I did not feel a-tingle. I...
LEMONY SNICKET
I thought maybe if I stared hard enough, I could see the lights of the city I had left so very far b...
LEMONY SNICKET
The library was one enormous room, with long, high metal shelves and the perfect quiet that librarie...
LEMONY SNICKET
There are two good reasons to put your napkin in your lap. One is that food might spill in your lap,...
LEMONY SNICKET
I went into the bathroom to brush my teeth. It is good to brush your teeth when you are angry, becau...
LEMONY SNICKET
There was something I was always very good at, however, and that was teaching myself not to be frigh...
LEMONY SNICKET
Scolding must be very, very fun, otherwise children would be allowed to do it. It is not because chi...
LEMONY SNICKET
So you’re reluctant, I said to myself. Many, many people are reluctant. It’s like having feet. I...
LEMONY SNICKET
The children of this world and the adults of this world are in entirely separate boats and only drif...
LEMONY SNICKET
A mystery is solved with a story.
LEMONY SNICKET
I’m reminded of a book my father used to read me,” she said. “A bunch of elves and things get ...
LEMONY SNICKET
You may be right,' she said, a phrase which here meant 'I’m wrong, but I don’t have the courage ...
LEMONY SNICKET
Knowing that something is wrong and doing it anyway happens very often in life, and I doubt I will e...
LEMONY SNICKET
There's an easy method for finding someone when you hear them scream. First get a clean sheet of pap...
LEMONY SNICKET
Don’t repeat yourself. It’s not only repetitive, it’s redundant, and people have heard it befo...
LEMONY SNICKET
They say in every library there is a single book that can answer the question that burns like a fire...
LEMONY SNICKET
How clever of you to figure that out,' said a voice at the top of the stairs, and Violet, and Klaus ...
LEMONY SNICKET
I'm not a stranger," I said, and pointed to his book. "I'm someone who reads the same authors you do...
LEMONY SNICKET
There is nothing wrong with crying at the end of a long day.
LEMONY SNICKET
being skeptical is a good thing for a journalist, because it means you don't completely trust anyone...
LEMONY SNICKET
There are people in the world who care about automobiles, and there are people who couldn't care les...
LEMONY SNICKET
Perhaps I had been in another world before I was born, and did not remember it, or perhaps I would s...
LEMONY SNICKET
There are many mysteries I have never solved, and the hair of my chaperone is perhaps my most curiou...
LEMONY SNICKET
It is never seven that you count to, before you do something difficult. It is never at the count of ...
LEMONY SNICKET
The three of us stood there for a minute. I don’t know what Stew was thinking, and the filing cabi...
LEMONY SNICKET
When you need a haircut, it looks like you have no one to take care of you.
LEMONY SNICKET
I don't know why wicked places generally look wicked. You'd think they'd look nice, to fool people, ...
LEMONY SNICKET
They can teach you anything. That doesn't mean you learn it. It doesn't mean you believe it.
LEMONY SNICKET
The trick to following someone without getting caught is to follow somebody who doesn't think they'r...
LEMONY SNICKET
I thought the war was a simple matter, with one side good and the other evil. But the more I read, t...
LEMONY SNICKET
Complimenting someone in an exaggerated way is known as flattery, and flattery will generally get yo...
LEMONY SNICKET
Of course you can trust me," Jake Hix said. "We read the same books.
LEMONY SNICKET
It is a lonely feeling when someone you care about becomes a stranger.
LEMONY SNICKET
Nobody should feel pain all by themselves.
LEMONY SNICKET
There are some secrets you want to keep to yourself, even if they don't matter. They might only matt...
LEMONY SNICKET