The Bad Seed Quotes

“It seemed to her suddenly that violence was an inescapable factor of the heart, perhaps the most important factor of all - an ineradicable thing that lay, like a bad seed, behind kindness, behind compassion, behind the embrace of love itself. Sometimes it lay deeply hidden, sometimes it lay close to the surface; but always it was there, ready to appear, under the right conditions, in all its irrational dreadfulness.”
― William March, The Bad Seed

“The living room had that depressing look of expensive bad taste.”
― William March, The Bad Seed

“What you say about me, you're really saying about yourself.”
― William March, The Bad Seed

“He worked with that aggrieved persistence, as though calling on heaven to witness the injustice done him, which the sullen everywhere bring to their trivial tasks; and as he worked, his lips moved in unison with his hands to shape his petulant thoughts for his pleasure, for his mind rehearsed eternally the inequities that had been forced upon him—inequities which he must endure in silence, since he was one of the underprivileged ones of the world, the unfortunate son of an unfortunate sharecropper, the pathetic victim of an oppressive system, as everyone who knew anything at all admitted, and had admitted for a long time.”
― William March, The Bad Seed

“What was to be their duty in future both to their child, and to the society in which they lived?”
― William March, The Bad Seed

“Is it that the eye finds what the mind is seeking?”
― William March, The Bad Seed

“She will destroy us all. I did not escape, either. She will destroy us all, in time.”
― William March, The Bad Seed

“Rhoda moved off slowly, an expression of patient bafflement in her eyes; then, throwing herself on the sofa, she buried her face in a pillow and wept plaintively, peering up at her mother through her laced fingers. But the performance was not at all convincing, and Christine looked back at her child with a new, dispassionate interest, and thought: She’s an amateur so far; but she’s improving day by day. She’s perfecting her act. In a few years, her act won’t seem corny at all. It’ll be most convincing then, I’m sure.”
― William March, The Bad Seed

“No.” It was then Christine went back to her kitchen, to finish the luncheon dishes there; but her suspicions were now aroused, and she wondered why the child had asked her strange question, for she knew now, and had known for a long time, that Rhoda asked nothing idly, for the pleasure of hearing her own voice, as other children did.”
― William March, The Bad Seed

“once believed I was a foundling with royal blood—Plantagenet, I think it was. I don’t know how I managed to get on my parents’ doorstep,”
― William March, The Bad Seed

“According to Reggie Tasker’s notes, Nurse Dennison returned with her treat and immediately prepared a drink of orange pop for her niece Shirley. For the next hour or so she observed the child’s convulsions with a most flattering concern; later on, perhaps because the child’s stamina seemed about to triumph over her aunt’s intention, Nurse Dennison said that, in her opinion, what little Shirley needed at this point in her illness was another sip or two of orange pop; it was sure to settle her stomach and return her to her customary bouncing health. She tendered the cup, and Shirley, a sweet, obedient child, drank at her aunt’s bidding.”
― William March, The Bad Seed

“Nurse Dennison’s husband, conventionally true to the family tradition of nausea, burning throat, and convulsions, had passed on in the autumn of 1951, with, of course, the conventional policies on his life.”
― William March, The Bad Seed

“Two men came up and stood under the crepe-myrtle tree behind her, both looking at their watches at the same instant. “I was reading the other day,” said the taller of the two, “that the age we live in is an age of anxiety. You know what? I thought that was pretty good—a pretty fair judgment. I told Ruth about it when I got home, and she said, ‘You can say that again!’ ” “Every age that people live in is an age of anxiety,” said the other man. “If anybody asks me, I’d say the age we live in is an age of violence. It looks to me like violence is in everybody’s mind these days. It looks like we’re just going to keep on until there’s nothing left to ruin. If you stop and think about it, it scares you.” “Well, maybe we live in an age of anxiety and violence.” “Now, that sounds more like it. Come to think about it, I guess that’s what our age is really like.”
― William March, The Bad Seed

“There was somebody screaming somewhere, and she kept wondering who it could be. She turned to the people who watched her and said in a lost, chiding voice, "Quit screaming, please! Screaming doesn't help!" She closed her eyes and leaned against the fence; and then she knew the person screaming was herself.”
― William March, The Bad Seed

“The postman said there were two ways of meeting experience—you could expect pain or you could expect happiness. “Now, I’m going to look on the bright side until I know to the contrary,” he said. “I’m going to look on the bright side, and keep saying everything’s going to come out the way I want it to.”
― William March, The Bad Seed

“I don’t believe environment had much to do with it. It must be something deeper than that. She sighed, raised her head, and looked at Mrs. Breedlove once more, thinking: It was something dark. Something dark and unexplainable.”
― William March, The Bad Seed

“I was surprised that anyone can have a pistol here, if he wants it. In New York, having a pistol is one of the worst things you can possibly do.” “You have to have a permit,” said Emory. “That is, everybody but the crook that shoots you has to have one. Now, we’re more civilized in this state; we believe in giving the victim a chance, too.”
― William March, The Bad Seed

“Later that day, when Rhoda returned from church, she had her prize tucked under her arm; it was a copy of Elsie Dinsmore, and, going at once to the park, she opened her book and began eagerly to read, as though she hoped to find there an understanding of those puzzling values she saw in others”
― William March, The Bad Seed

“Christine read the text slowly, shook her head, and thought: Is there nothing but violence everywhere? Is there no real peace anywhere in the world? She wondered if her daughter should be taught such things, but sighing in a gentle protest, feeling that others surely knew more about these matters of faith than she did, she asked her daughter the questions required.”
― William March, The Bad Seed

“Mrs. Breedlove looked about her, and then realizing for the first time the effect she’d created among her guests, she tossed her head and said in a surprised voice, “I don’t see why the idea shocks you so. A thing so commonplace as that! Actually, homosexuality is triter than incest! Doctor Kettlebaum considered it was all a matter of personal preference.”
― William March, The Bad Seed

“It seemed to her suddenly that violence was an inescapable factor of the heart, perhaps the most important factor of all—an ineradicable thing that lay, like a bad seed, behind kindness, behind compassion, behind the embrace of love itself. Sometimes it lay deeply hidden, sometimes it lay close to the surface; but always it was there, ready to appear, under the right conditions, in all its irrational dreadfulness.”
― William March, The Bad Seed

“She just went on eating her apple, shaking her head, and looking us over with that calculating, almost contemptuous, look she has at certain times.” “Oh, I know! I know!” said Christine. “I’ve seen that look so many times!”
― William March, The Bad Seed

“Miss Octavia, from the depth of her experience with children, spoke gently. “You will not be able to change her. The child lives in her own particular world, and I’m sure it isn’t anything at all like the world you and I live in.”
― William March, The Bad Seed

“Miss Burgess Fern came up, sat in the chair beside her sister, and, after listening a moment, said, “I think the secret of Rhoda’s temperament is the simple fact that she doesn’t need others, the way most of us do. She is such a self-sufficient little girl! Never in all my life have I seen anybody so completely all-of-one-piece!”
― William March, The Bad Seed

“Mrs. Penmark said that she was, adding that the child, almost from babyhood, had been something of a riddle both to herself and her husband. It was a thing difficult to isolate, or identify, but there was a strangely mature quality in the child’s character which they found disturbing.”
― William March, The Bad Seed

“Monica was the first woman in town to bob her hair,” said Miss Burgess. “And she was the first woman, at least the first respectable one, to smoke in public.” “When you see her,” continued Miss Claudia, “tell her I think she stepped on my train because Colonel Glass had danced with me three times that evening, and hadn’t danced with her once.”
― William March, The Bad Seed

“Leroy unscrewed the hose from its faucet and prepared to put it away in the basement, thinking: Nobody can put nothing over on Rhoda, I’ll say that much for her. And nobody can put nothing over on me, neither. I guess Rhoda and me are just alike. But in this he was mistaken, as we shall see in time, for Rhoda was able to put into action the things that he could only turn over in his mind as fantasies.”
― William March, The Bad Seed

“That good-looking Mrs. Penmark, that dizzy blonde, didn’t know what it was all about. She was too dumb, when you came right down to it, to understand his contempt for her. She was one of them soft, easily-taken-in ones that went around feeling sorry for people. She was one of the ones that was eat up with kindness”
― William March, The Bad Seed

“then, with no emotion in her voice, as though repeating a thing which did not really concern her, she said, “I don’t see why Claude Daigle got the medal. It was mine. Everybody knew it was mine.”
― William March, The Bad Seed

“William March (1893–1954), born William Edward March Campbell in Mobile, Alabama, was an American novelist and short-story writer. He served in the Marines during World War I and was recognized with the Distinguished Service Cross, the Navy Cross, and the Croix de Guerre. His first novel, Company K, was based largely on his wartime experiences. A prolific writer of short stories, he was a four-time winner of the O. Henry Prize. The Bad Seed was an immediate critical and commercial success, the source for a Tony Award–winning Broadway play, and a finalist for the National Book Award. Sadly, March died of a heart attack just weeks after publication.”
― William March, The Bad Seed