Robert C. O'Brien · 240 pages
Rating: (149.2K votes)
“When you’ve lived in a cage, you can’t bear not to run, even if what you’re running towards is an illusion.”
― Robert C. O'Brien, quote from Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
“There were two sets of encyclopedias that had sections on rats. From them we learned that we were about the most hated animals on earth, except maybe snakes and germs.
That seemed strange to us, and unjust. [...] But people think we spread diseases, and I suppose possibly we do, though never intentionally, and surely we never spread as many diseases as people themselves do.”
― Robert C. O'Brien, quote from Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
“Still, it seemed to us that the main reason we were hated must be that we always lived by stealing. From the earliest times, rats lived around the edges of human cities and farms, stowed away on men's ships, gnawed holes in their floors and stole their food. Sometimes we were accused of biting human children; I didn't believe that, nor did any of us⎼unless it was some kind of a subnormal rat, bred in the worst of city slums. And that, of course, can happen to people, too.”
― Robert C. O'Brien, quote from Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
“Word gets around." "You mean they communicate?" A third voice. "You bet they communicate. And the next time they do come, you can be sure they'll case the place carefully. We were lucky. These rats hadn't been bothered in years. They'd grown careless.”
― Robert C. O'Brien, quote from Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
“The real point is this: We don't know where to go because we don't know what we are. Do you want to go back to living in a sewer-pipe? And eating other people's garbage? Because that's what rats do. But the fact is, we aren't rats anymore. We are something Dr. Schultz has made. Something new.”
― Robert C. O'Brien, quote from Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
“What's wrong with being alone anyway? Being alone is sometimes a great place to be, but people are always trying to correct this "problem" for you, even if you yourself don't have any kind of problem with it.”
― Amy Schumer, quote from The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo
“I don’t want my past to determine my future—and my future is you, Josh.”
― Jay McLean, quote from Kick, Push
“...it has always been the many faceless men, those foot soldiers, who have suffered most, who have died. It is they who make a nation.”
― F. Sionil José, quote from Dusk
“with their mouth open they’ll eat an average of five spiders a night, which is kind of believable if you think about it. Another time Rodrick told me that it’s dangerous to wake someone up when they’re sleepwalking. I thought there could be a chance he was actually telling the truth, because I’m pretty sure I heard that one somewhere else. ZZZZZ”
― Jeff Kinney, quote from Double Down
“He’s just so…so…unyielding.”
“Wow, is that one of your SAT words?”
“Ha-ha, very funny. You know what I mean, though.”
She shrugs. “Yeah, I know. He’s always been that way. I kind of figured he’d grow out of it.”
“Well, don’t hold your breath. That boy’s got a stick up his ass, if you ask me.”
“A very attractive one at that.”
“What, the stick or his ass?”
― Kristi Cook, quote from Magnolia
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