Louise Fitzhugh quotes:

When people don't do anything they don't think anything, and when people don't think anything there's nothing to think about them.- Harriet the Spy

Little lies that make people feel better are not bad, like thanking someone for a meal they made even if you hated it, or telling a sick person they look better when they don't, or someone with a hideous new hat that it's lovely. But to yourself you must tell the truth

I feel there's a funny little hole in me that wasn't there before, like a splinter in your finger, but this is somewhere above my stomach.

Ole Golly: The time has come, the walrus said... Harriet M. Welsch: To talk of many things... Ole Golly: Of shoes and ships and ceiling wax... Harriet M. Welsch: Of cabbages and kings... Ole Golly: And why the sea is boiling hot... Harriet M. Welsch: And whether pigs have wings!

[Harriet] hated math. She hated math with every bone in her body. She spent so much time hating it that she never had time to do it.

Don't mess with anybody on a Monday. It's a bad, bad day.

Good manners are very important, particularly in the morning.

Ole Golly: You know what? You're an individual, and that makes people nervous. And it's gonna keep making people nervous for the rest of your life.

People who love work, love life.

Sometimes you have to lie. But to yourself you must always tell the truth.

Harriet never minded admitting she didn't know something. So what, she thought, I could always learn.

Life is a struggle and a good spy goes in there and fights.

Gone is gone. I never miss anything or anyone because it all becomes a lovely memory. I guard my memories and love them, but I don't get in them and lie down.

All I ask of in the world is just one day after another with nothing planned.

I think maybe they're all right when they say there are some things I won't know anything about until I'm older. But if [love] makes you like to eat all kinds of wurst I'm not sure I'm going to like this.

If you ever get in real trouble, don't panic. Sit down and think about it. Remember two things, always. There must be some way out of it and there must be humor in it somewhere.

It won't do you a bit of good to know everything if you don't do anything with it.

LIFE IS A GREAT MYSTERY. IS EVERYBODY A DIFFERENT PERSON WHEN THEY ARE WITH SOMEBODY ELSE?

She didn't care anymore... and she got no pleasure from the work she did, but she did it. Everything bored her. She found that when she didn't have a notebook it was hard for her to think. The thoughts came slowly, as though they had to squeeze through a tiny door to get to her, whereas when she wrote, they flowed out faster than she could put them down. She sat very stupidly with a blank mind until finall 'I feel different' came slowly to her mind. Yes, she thought, after a long pause. And then, after more time, 'Mean, I feel mean.

There are as many ways to live as there are people.

There is no sight so ugly as the human face in anger.

This was too much. "I refuse. I absolutely REFUSE to be an onion.