I’d much rather have good teeth than have diamonds and roses drop out of my mouth whenever I said something

He pushed his glasses up on his nose and gave me a sidelong look, the one that meant he was so sure you were wrong that he could just wait and let you find out for yourself the hard way.

In short, if we wish to see anything sensible done about the situation, we will clearly have to do it ourselves.

Sometimes I couldn't help thinking that the unluckiest thing about being the thirteenth child was having all those older brothers and sisters telling me what to do.

Humility is as good for the soul as it is for the memory

Rennie didn't quite dare to answer back, but she looked a whole book and a couple of extra chapters.

It took us most of the morning to put together the letter she sent to the Frontier Management Department, and I learned a lot about how to be frigidly polite and still leave somebody feeling like they'd been spanked.