When Did You See Her Last?

I'm not a stranger," I said, and pointed to his book. "I'm someone who reads the same authors you do.

Do the scary thing first, and get scared later.

Anyone who gives you a cinnamon roll fresh out of the oven is a friend for life.

Anyone who thinks the pen is mightier than the sword has not been stabbed with both.

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

No reality has the power to dispel a dream.

Nobody wants to hear that you will try your best. It is the wrong thing to say. It is like saying 'I probably won't hit you with a shovel.' Suddenly everyone is afraid you will do the opposite.

We weren't friends[...]We were more like jigsaw pieces, each of us part of the same big picture. There are people like this wherever you go. They are part of the same mystery as you are, but you can't quite tell how you fit together. The world is a puzzle, and we can't solve it alone.

We are all told to ignore bullies. It's something they teach you, and they can teach you anything. It doesn't mean you learn it. It doesn't mean you believe it. One should never ignore bullies. One should stop them.

Boredom is not black licorice, Snicket," she said. "There's no reason to share it with me.

It seemed to me that every adult did something terrible sooner or later. And every child, I thought, sooner or later becomes an adult.

[I]t was the color of someone buying you an ice cream cone for no reason at all.

There are some secrets you want to keep to yourself, even if they don't matter. They might only matter if you keep them secret.

It is a lonely feeling when someone you care about becomes a stranger.

Nobody should feel pain all by themselves.

He looked like the sort of person who would tell you that he did not have an umbrella to lend you when he actually had several and simply wanted to see you get soaked.

Of course you can trust me," Jake Hix said. "We read the same books.

Complimenting someone in an exaggerated way is known as flattery, and flattery will generally get you anything you want...

I thought the war was a simple matter, with one side good and the other evil. But the more I read, the less clear it was.

When you need a haircut, it looks like you have no one to take care of you.

The trick to following someone without getting caught is to follow somebody who doesn't think they're being followed.

They can teach you anything. That doesn't mean you learn it. It doesn't mean you believe it.

I don't know why wicked places generally look wicked. You'd think they'd look nice, to fool people, but they hardly ever do.

The three of us stood there for a minute. I don’t know what Stew was thinking, and the filing cabinet wasn’t thinking anything. But I was thinking, is this the world? Is this really the place in which you’ve ended up, Snicket? It was a question that struck me, as it might strike you, when something ridiculous was going on, or something sad. I wondered if this was really where I should be, or if there was another world someplace, less ridiculous and less sad. But I never knew the answer to the question. Perhaps I had been in another world before I was born, and did not remember it, or perhaps I would see another world when I died, which I was in no hurry to do. In the meantime, I was stuck in the police station, doing something so ridiculous it felt sad, and feeling so sad it was ridiculous. The world of the police station, the world of Stain’d-by-the-Sea and all of the wrong questions I was asking, was was the only world I could see.

It is never seven that you count to, before you do something difficult. It is never at the count of two. It is always three, and it is strange.

There are many mysteries I have never solved, and the hair of my chaperone is perhaps my most curious unsolved case.

Perhaps I had been in another world before I was born, and did not remember it, or perhaps I would see another world when I died, which I was in no hurry to do.

There are people in the world who care about automobiles, and there are people who couldn't care less, and then there are the people who are impressed by the Dilemma, and those people are everyone.

No reality has the power to dispel a dream

being skeptical is a good thing for a journalist, because it means you don't completely trust anyone.