From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs Basil E. Frankweiler

by E.L. Konigsburg

She was the oldest child and the only girl and was subject to a lot of injustice.

(Flattery is as important a machine as the lever, isn’t it, Saxonberg? Give it a proper place to rest, and it can move the world.)

If you think of doing something in New York City, you can be certain that at least two thousand other people have that same thought.

“Angels wear clothes and wings and are Christian. Cupids wear bows and arrows; they are naked and pagan.”

Claudia had begun her research confident that a morning’s study would make her completely an expert; but Michelangelo had humbled her, and humility was not an emotion with which she felt comfortable; she was irritable.

“Yeah, I guess homesickness is like sucking your thumb. It’s what happens when you’re not very sure of yourself.”

Some people spend all their time on a vacation taking pictures so that when they get home they can show their friends evidence that they had a good time. They don’t pause to let the vacation enter inside of them and take that home.”

Claudia doesn’t want adventure. She likes baths and feeling comfortable too much for that kind of thing. Secrets are the kind of adventure she needs. Secrets are safe, and they do much to make you different. On the inside where it counts.

Happiness is excitement that has found a settling down place, but there is always a little corner that keeps flapping around.

“Because after a time having a secret and nobody knowing you have a secret is no fun. And although you don’t want others to know what the secret is, you want them to at least know you have one.”