Quotes from Harriet the Spy

Louise Fitzhugh ·  300 pages

Rating: (86.4K votes)


“Don't mess with anybody on a Monday. It's a bad, bad day.”
― Louise Fitzhugh, quote from Harriet the Spy


“[Harriet] hated math. She hated math with every bone in her body. She spent so much time hating it that she never had time to do it.”
― Louise Fitzhugh, quote from Harriet the Spy


“Sometimes you have to lie. But to yourself you must always tell the truth.”
― Louise Fitzhugh, quote from Harriet the Spy


“People who love work, love life.”
― Louise Fitzhugh, quote from Harriet the Spy


“YOU CAN'T BE TOO OLD TO SPY EXCEPT IF YOU WERE FIFTY YOU MIGHT FALL OFF A FIRE ESCAPE, BUT YOU COULD SPY AROUND ON THE GROUND A LOT.”
― Louise Fitzhugh, quote from Harriet the Spy



“Little lies that make people feel better are not bad, like thanking someone for a meal they made even if you hated it, or telling a sick person they look better when they don't, or someone with a hideous new hat that it's lovely. But to yourself you must tell the truth”
― Louise Fitzhugh, quote from Harriet the Spy


“She didn't care anymore... and she got no pleasure from the work she did, but she did it. Everything bored her. She found that when she didn't have a notebook it was hard for her to think. The thoughts came slowly, as though they had to squeeze through a tiny door to get to her, whereas when she wrote, they flowed out faster than she could put them down. She sat very stupidly with a blank mind until finall 'I feel different' came slowly to her mind.

Yes, she thought, after a long pause. And then, after more time, 'Mean, I feel mean.”
― Louise Fitzhugh, quote from Harriet the Spy


“Life is a struggle and a good spy goes in there and fights.”
― Louise Fitzhugh, quote from Harriet the Spy


“LIFE IS A GREAT MYSTERY. IS EVERYBODY A DIFFERENT PERSON WHEN THEY ARE WITH SOMEBODY ELSE?”
― Louise Fitzhugh, quote from Harriet the Spy


“I WONDER IF WHEN YOU DREAM ABOUT SOMEBODY THEY DREAM ABOUT YOU.”
― Louise Fitzhugh, quote from Harriet the Spy



“Ole Golly: The time has come, the walrus said...
Harriet M. Welsch: To talk of many things...
Ole Golly: Of shoes and ships and ceiling wax...
Harriet M. Welsch: Of cabbages and kings...
Ole Golly: And why the sea is boiling hot...
Harriet M. Welsch: And whether pigs have wings!”
― Louise Fitzhugh, quote from Harriet the Spy


“This was too much. "I refuse. I absolutely REFUSE to be an onion.”
― Louise Fitzhugh, quote from Harriet the Spy


“Harriet: Is it fun being married?
Ole Golly: How should I know? I've never been married. However, I doubt it's all fun. Nothing ever is, you know.”
― Louise Fitzhugh, quote from Harriet the Spy


“THERE IS MORE TO THIS THING OF LOVE THAN MEETS THE EYE. I AM GOING TO HAVE TO THINK ABOUT THIS A GREAT DEAL BUT I DON'T THINK IT WILL GET ME ANYWHERE. I THINK MAYBE THEY'RE ALL RIGHT WHEN THEY SAY THERE ARE DOME THINGS I WON'T KNOW ABOUT UNTIL I'M OLDER.”
― Louise Fitzhugh, quote from Harriet the Spy


“Harriet: How do you practice being an onion?”
― Louise Fitzhugh, quote from Harriet the Spy



“I feel all the same things when I do things alone as when Ole Golly was here. The bath feels hot, the bed feels soft, but I feel there's a funny little hole in me that wasn't there before, like a splinter in your finger, but this is somewhere above my stomach.”
― Louise Fitzhugh, quote from Harriet the Spy


“Harriet pushed her hair back and looked at him seriously. 'Sport, what are you going to be when you grow up?'

'You know what. You know I'm going to be a ball player.'

'Well, I'm going to be a writer. And when I say that's a mountain, that's a mountain.' Satisfied, she turned back to her town.”
― Louise Fitzhugh, quote from Harriet the Spy


“If Marion Hawthorne doesn't watch out, she's going to grow up into a lady Hitler.”
― Louise Fitzhugh, quote from Harriet the Spy


“SOMETHING TERRIBLE IS GOING TO HAPPEN. I KNOW IT. EVERY TIME I HAD A BAD DREAM I FEEL LIKE LEAVING TOWN. THEN I FEEL THAT SOMETHING TERRIBLE IS GOING TO HAPPEN. AND THIS IS THE WORST DREAM I'VE EVER HAD IN MY WHOLE LIFE.”
― Louise Fitzhugh, quote from Harriet the Spy


“Apakah setiap orang akan menjadi orang yang berbeda ketika mereka bersama orang lain?”
― Louise Fitzhugh, quote from Harriet the Spy



“Well, I’m going to be a writer. And when I say that’s a mountain, that’s a mountain.”
― Louise Fitzhugh, quote from Harriet the Spy


“IF YOU CAN KEEP YOUR HEAD WHEN ALL ABOUT YOU ARE LOSING THEIRS AND BLAMING IT ON YOU”
― Louise Fitzhugh, quote from Harriet the Spy


“It feels ... as though doors were opening all over the world... It's bigger, somehow, the world.”
― Louise Fitzhugh, quote from Harriet the Spy


About the author

Louise Fitzhugh
Born place: in Memphis, TN, The United States
Born date October 5, 1928
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Popular quotes

“Soon, droves of children start to show up, keeping us rather busy. We start tallying up the number of Trolls, Batmans, Lego men, and princesses we see. The most popular costume? Batman and Superwoman with the fabrics and accessories varying from child to child. But my favorite so far is the girl who dressed as Little Debbie, but then again, I may be biased.

“I think she might be my new favorite,” Emma says as a little girl dressed as a nurse walks away.

“That’s because you’re a nurse, but you can’t play favorites,” I say, reminding Emma of the rules.

She levels with me. “This coming from the guy whose favorite child was dressed as Little Debbie.”

“Come on.” I lean back in my chair and motion to my head. “She had the rim of blue on her hat. That’s attention to detail.”

“And good fucking parenting,” Tucker chimes in, and we clink our beer bottles together.

Amelia chuckles next to me as Emma shakes her head. “Ridiculous. What about you, Amelia? What costume has been your favorite so far?”

“Hmm, it’s been a tough competition. There has been some real winning costumes and some absolute piss-poor ones.” She shakes her head. “Just because you put a scarf around your neck and call yourself Jack Frost doesn’t mean you dressed up.”

“Ugh, that costume was dumb.”

“It shouldn’t be referred to as a costume, but that’s beside the point.” I like how much Amelia is getting into this little pretend competition. She’s a far cry from the girl who first came home earlier. I love that having Tucker and Emma over has given me more time with Amelia, getting to know the woman she is today, but also managed to put that beautiful smile back on her face.

“So who takes the cake for you?” I ask, nudging her leg with mine.

Smiling up at me, she says, “Hands down it’s the little boy who dressed as Dwight Schrute from The Office. I think I giggled for five minutes straight after he left. That costume was spot on.”

“Oh shit, you’re right,” I reply as Emma and Tucker agree with me. “He even had the watch calculator.”

“And the small nose Dwight always complains about.” Emma chuckles. “Yeah, he has to be the winner.”

“Now, now, now, let’s not get too hasty. Little Debbie is still in the running,” Tucker points out.

Amelia leans forward, seeming incredibly comfortable, and says, “There is no way Little Debbie beats Dwight. Sorry, dude.”

The shocked look on Tucker’s face is comical. He’s just been put in his place and the old Amelia has returned.

I fucking love it.”
― Meghan Quinn, quote from The Other Brother


“At this point in the course, everyone in the room despised Akiko, but suddenly he admired her courage to think so differently and to suggest such a difficult truth. He felt lucky to be at a university and not in most other settings, where the person in charge was always right. Nevertheless, until he really listened to Akiko disagree with the professor, he had not thought for himself fully, and it had never occurred to him to disagree in public.”
― Min Jin Lee, quote from Pachinko


“Two weeks later, I wore a coat to school for the first time that year. Fall had made its presence known in the form of wet, earthy smells and shivering tree limbs shedding leaves in various shades of exotic cat. I walked to school that morning, listening to the crisp sounds that punctuated each one of my footfalls and the honks of geese flying overhead. I found it strange that there could be so much beauty in the death of all these living things. Maybe it was only beautiful because we knew they would be resurrected next spring. I don't think I would enjoy fall quite as much if I knew there was an eternal winter to follow.”
― Ruth Emmie Lang, quote from Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance


“Liars Make the best Magicians, and he happened to be exceptional!" taken from The Last Magician by Lisa Maxwell.”
― Lisa Maxwell, quote from The Last Magician


“إننا بحاجة للآخرين لكي نفهم أنفسنا, وبحاجة إلى حريتهم وإلى سعادتهم إذا أمكن ذلك, لإتمام حياتنا الخاصة”
― Luc Ferry, quote from A Brief History of Thought: A Philosophical Guide to Living


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