Home > Work > From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
1 " I've been the oldest child since before you were born "
― E.L. Konigsburg , From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
2 " Happiness is excitement that has found a settling down place, but there is always a little corner that keeps flapping around. "
3 " ...I didn't run away to come home the same. -Claudia "
4 " I think you should learn, of course, and some days you must learn a great deal. But you should also have days when you allow what is already in you to swell up inside of you until it touches everything. And you can feel it inside of you. If you never take time out to let that happen, then you accumulate facts, and they begin to rattle around inside of you. You can make noise with them, but never really feel anything with them. It's hollow. "
5 " But lying in bed just before going to sleep is the worst time for organized thinking; it is the best time for free thinking. Ideas drift like clouds in an undecided breeze, taking first this direction and then that. "
6 " 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. "
7 " The adventure is over. Everything gets over, and nothing is ever enough. Except the part you carry with you. It's the same as going on a vacation. 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. "
8 " The eyes are the windows of the soul.... If someone was to look into your eyes, what would you want them to see? "
9 " Claudia knew that she could never pull off the old-fashioned kind of running away. That is, running away in the heat of anger with a knapsack on her pack. She didn't like discomfort; even picnics were untidy and inconvenient: all those insects and the sun melting the icing on the cupcakes. Therefore, she decided that her leaving home would not be just running from somewhere but would be running to somewhere. "
10 " A nasty letter or a sarcastic one can make you righteously angry, but what can you do about a polite letter of rejection? Nothing, really, except cry. "
11 " If you think of doing something in New York City, you can be certain that at least two thousand other people have the same thought. And of the two thousand who do, about one thousand will be standing in line waiting to do it. "
12 " There's something nice and safe about having money. "
13 " Therefore, she decided that her leaving home would not be just running from somewhere but would be running to somewhere. "
14 " Jamie, you know, you could go clear around the world and still come home wondering if the tuna fish sandwiches at Chock Full O'Nuts still cost thirty-five cents. "
15 " I keep telling you that often the search proves more profitable than the goal. "
16 " Becoming a team didn’t mean the end of their arguments. But it did mean that the arguments became a part of the adventure, became discussions not threats. To an outsider the arguments would appear to be the same because feeling like part of a team is something that happens invisibly. You might call it caring. You could even call it love. "
17 " Jamie liked perspiration, a little bit of dirt, and complications. "
18 " should also have days when you allow what is already in you to swell up inside of you until it touches everything. And you can feel it inside you. If you never take time out to let that happen, then you just accumulate facts, and they begin to rattle around inside of you. You can make noise with them, but never really feel anything with them. It’s hollow. "
19 " Having words and explanations for things is too modern "
20 " 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. "