The sad truth is the truth is sad.

I was stupid, the official descriptive phrase for happy.

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

How did you do that?” Mr. Poe asked. “Nice girls shouldn’t know how to do such things.” “My sister is a nice girl,” Klaus said, “and she knows how to do all sorts of things.

Young writers should read books past bedtime and write things down in notebooks when they are supposed to be doing something else.

My chauffer once told me that I would feel better in the morning, but when I woke up the two of us were still on a tiny island surrounded by man-eating crocodiles, and, as I'm sure you can understand, I didn't feel any better about it.

A long time ago, there was no such thing as school, and children spent their days learning a trade, a phrase which here means "standing around doing tedious tasks under the instruction of a bossy adult." In time, however, people realized that the children could be allowed to sit, and the first school was invented.