The worst surroundings in the world can be tolerated if the people in them are interesting and kind.

In the time since the Baudelaire parents' death, most of the Baudelaire orphans' friends had fallen by the wayside, an expression wich here means "they stopped calling, writing, and stopping by to see any of the Baudelaires, making them lonely". You and I, of course, would never do this to any of our grieving acquaintances, but it is a sad truth that when someone has lost a loved one, friends sometimes avoid the person, just when the presence of friends is most needed.

You meet people who are in pain in life and love and you forgive them for behaving the way they do.

We laughed the rest of the way, because the point of this story is, it is not the cookies. It is the love.

...that's not why we broke up. I love it, I miss it, I hate to give it back to you, this complicated thing, it's why we stayed together

In the secret pocket, she often kept a small pocket dictionary, which she would take out whenever she encountered a word she did not know.

There are two good reasons to put your napkin in your lap. One is that food might spill in your lap, and it is better to stain the napkin than your clothing. The other is that it can serve as a perfect hiding place. Practically nobody is nosey enough to take the napkin off a lap to see what is hidden there.