The Mysterious Howling Quotes
"Traveling alone is quite a different kettle of fish from traveling with companions."
"Being anxious is a full-time and rather exhausting occupation."
"All books are judged by their covers until they are read."
"A person’s life can certainly change a great deal in two days."
"That which can be purchased at a shop is easily left in a taxi; that which you carry inside you is difficult, though not impossible, to misplace."
"A well-organized stocking drawer is the first step toward a well-organized mind."
"For now, my sole occupation should be to acquaint myself with my new home—starting with this charming room."
"There is something beyond hunger in these cries."
"The best way to find out how fast a horse can run is to smack it on the rump."
"They will follow anyone who feeds them and is kind."
"The best way to teach anybody anything was by setting a good example."
"Penelope’s days soon fell into a rhythm: She would wake in her charming room and suffer a pang of homesickness, which she would soothe by reading from her poetry book or adding a few lines to her latest letter-in-progress to Miss Mortimer."
"She thought of her pupils as unusual, not unteachable."
"The children can hardly be blamed for their uncivilized condition—no more than poor Silky could be blamed for his, or the Poor Bright Females of Swanburne Academy for their lack of solvent relatives!"
"I shall devise a squirrel desensitization program."
"Nothing good was ever learned from eavesdropping, so mind your business and let others mind theirs."
"If it were easy to resist, it would not be called chocolate cake."
"‘LUMAWOO?’ This is what the children had taken to calling Penelope."
"Moon, moon, moon. Night, no moon? Dark. Night, yes moon? Light! Yes, moon! Ahwooooo!"
"‘Wanderlust? It means ‘having a strong desire to travel.’"
"Once a train has left the station and is going along at a good clip, it is often fiendishly difficult to slam on the brakes, even if you are clearly headed for trouble."
"Their eyes swept the walls like searchlights, revealing each mounted, stuffed head in turn: the furred ears, the massive pronged antlers, the bared teeth—all the dead yet sickeningly lifelike trophies of Lord Fredrick’s hunting habit."
"Whining—or howling or what you please—is not the solution to any of life’s problems."
"The mystery of not knowing what one’s future held paled next to the mystery of not knowing all that one’s past already contained."
"When the impossible becomes merely difficult, that’s when you know you’ve won."
"Irony is when you say one thing but mean something else."
"There are times when married life is not what I expected."
"Finding out the difference between what one expected one’s life would be like and how things really are."
"I am a graduate of the Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females, currently employed as governess here at Ashton Place."
"Start afresh. There is no need to carry yesterday’s fears and disappointments into a brand-new day—especially on Christmas!"
"Cogito, ergo sum. ‘I think, therefore I am.’"
"Veni, vedi, vici. ‘I came, I saw, I conquered.’"
"Is this your doing, governess?" he murmured in a low voice.
"I believe she intends to say, ‘Go, Rainbow,'" she explained.
"Not fair, not fair—it's my party and all anyone wants to talk about is these awful, awful children."
"Surely it is all some sort of dark and unfunny joke," Penelope thought.
"Christmas is over. It is time to go to bed—after scrubbing your faces and hands, of course."
"Marvelous dancing, everyone! Our next entertainment will delight you just as much, I’m sure."
"I know it already! It’s Romulus and Remus, the twins who were raised by a wolf."
"Nooooo!" The word came out sounding like a growl.
"Enough!" Lady Constance marched up to the stage and pulled the curtain shut.
"Surely he was joking!" she thought quickly, which was just as quickly followed by the nauseating suspicion that he was not.
"If only Nutsawoo could speak!" Penelope concluded with a sigh.
"Like hide-and-go-seek?" Judge Quinzy smiled. "How charming."
"Accident!" Lady Constance clutched the seat of her chair so tightly, her knuckles turned white.
"They were provoked," Penelope said in a cracking voice.
"Finders keepers, what?" He laughed and then winced at the volume of his own chuckle.
"Sometimes the wisest course of action is to simply wait and see what happens next."
"One can board one’s train only after it arrives at the station. Until then, enjoy your newspaper!"
"Assuming that one is on dry land, the best way to see the sights is on foot. Otherwise, use a canoe."