AK GUPTA > AK's Quotes

“Everything. A letter may be coded, and a word may be coded. A theatrical performance may be coded, and a sonnet may be coded, and there are times when it seems the entire world is in code. Some believe that the world can be decoded by performing research in a library. Others believe that the world can be decoded by reading a newspaper. In my case, the only thing that made sense of the world was you, and without you the world will seem as garbled and tragic as a malfunctioning typewrit9.”
― Lemony Snicket, The Beatrice Letters

“Do the scary thing first, and get scared later.”
― Lemony Snicket, When Did You See Her Last?

“Desperate times call for desperate measures" is an aphorism which here means "sometimes you need to change your facial expression in order to create a workable disguise." The quoting of an aphorism, such as "It takes a village to raise a child," "No news is good news," and "Love conquers all," rarely indicates that something helpful is about to happen, which is why we provide our volunteers with a disguise kit in addition to helpful phrases of advice.”
― Lemony Snicket, Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography

“You may want to keep a commonplace book which is a notebook where you can copy parts of books you think are in code, or take notes on a series of events you may have observed that are suspicious, unfortunate, or very dull. Keep your commonplace book in a safe place, such as underneath your bed, or at a nearby dairy.”
― Lemony Snicket, Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography

“You don't spend your life hanging around books without learning a thing or two.”
― Lemony Snicket, Shouldn't You Be in School?

“Nowhere in the world is safe," Count Olaf said.
Not with you around," Violet agreed.
I'm no worse than anyone else," Count Olaf said.”
― Lemony Snicket, The End

“Someone feeling wronged is like someone feeling thirsty. Don’t tell them they aren’t. Sit with them and have a drink.”
― Lemony Snicket

“Dead women tell no tales. Sad men write them down.”
― Lemony Snicket

“People who say money doesn’t matter are like people who say cake doesn’t matter—it’s probably because they’ve already had a few slices.”
― Lemony Snicket

“Reader: Dear Mr. Snicket, What is the best way to keep a secret? Lemony Snicket : Tell it to everyone you know, but pretend you are kidding.”
― Lemony Snicket

“In this book, not only is there no happy ending, there is no happy beginning and very few happy things in the middle.”
― Lemony Snicket, The Bad Beginning

“I'm sure you have heard it said that appearance does not matter so much, and that it is what's on the inside that counts. This is, of course, utter nonsense, because if it were true then people who were good on this inside would would never have to comb their hair or take a bath, and the whole world would smell even worse than it already does.”
― Lemony Snicket, The Miserable Mill

“It is most likely that I will die next to a pile of books I was meaning to read.”
― Lemony Snicket

“All cannot be lost when there is still so much being found”
― Lemony Snicket

“There are two types of panicking: standing still and not saying a word, and leaping all over the place babbling anything that comes into your head.”
― Lemony Snicket, The Reptile Room

“Anyone who thinks the pen is mightier than the sword has not been stabbed with both.”
― Lemony Snicket, When Did You See Her Last?

“I will love you as a thief loves a gallery and as a crow loves a murder, as a cloud loves bats and as a range loves braes. I will love you as misfortune loves orphans, as fire loves innocence, and as justice loves to sit and watch while everything goes wrong.”
― Lemony Snicket, The Beatrice Letters

“It is a curious thing, the death of a loved one. We all know that our time in this world is limited, and that eventually all of us will end up underneath some sheet, never to wake up. And yet it is always a surprise when it happens to someone we know.”
― Lemony Snicket, The Reptile Room

“If you like books with happy endings then put this book down immediately.”
― Lemony Snicket, The Complete Wreck

“I am alone this evening, and I am alone because of a cruel twist of fate, a phrase which here means that nothing has happened the way I thought it would. Once I was a content man, with a comfortable home, a successful career, a person I loved very much, and an extremely reliable typewriter, but all of those things have been taken away from me, and now the only trace I have of those happy days is the tattoo on my left ankle. As I sit in this very tiny room, printing these words with a very large pencil, I feel as if my whole life has been nothing but a dismal play, presented just for someone else’s amusement, and that the playwright who invented my cruel twist of fate is somewhere far above me, laughing and laughing at his creation.”
― Lemony Snicket, The Hostile Hospital

“We are respecting our parents' wishes....They didn't want to shelter us from the world's treacheries. They wanted us to survive them.”
― Lemony Snicket, The End

“Life isn't fair," he said, in his undisguised voice, and for once the Baudelaire orphans agreed with every word the man said.”
― Lemony Snicket, The End

“The smell of cooking food is often a calming one.”
― Lemony Snicket, The Bad Beginning

“Every time you enter a library you might say to yourself, "The world is quiet here," as a sort of pledge proclaiming reading to be the greater good.”
― Lemony Snicket, The Slippery Slope

“In a world too often governed by corruption and arrogance, it can be difficult to stay true to one’s philosophical and literary principles.”
― Lemony Snicket, The Penultimate Peril

“But the three siblings were not born yesterday. Violet was born more than fifteen years before this particular Wednesday, and Klaus was born approximately two years after that, and even Sunny who had just passed out of babyhood, was not born yesterday. Neither were you, unless of course I am wrong, in which case, welcome to the world, little baby, and congratulations on learning to read so early in life.”
― Lemony Snicket, The Penultimate Peril

“Grammar is the greatest joy in life, don't you find?”
― Lemony Snicket, The Wide Window

“I don't know if you've ever noticed this, but first impressions are often entirely wrong. You can look at a painting for the first time, for example, and not like it at all, but after looking at it a little longer you may find it very pleasing. The first time you try Gorgonzola cheese you may find it too strong, but when you are older you may want to eat nothing but Gorgonzola cheese. Klaus, when Sunny was born, did not like her at all, but by the time she was six weeks old the two of them were thick as thieves. Your initial opinion on just about anything may change over time.”
― Lemony Snicket, The Bad Beginning

“Announcing your death should be like announcing that you are a lunar moth: It must be done quietly or it will not be believed.”
― Lemony Snicket, Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid

“Knowing that something is wrong and doing it anyway happens very often in life, and I doubt I will ever know why.”
― Lemony Snicket, Who Could That Be at This Hour?