Mysterious Benedict Society Quotes

• You must remember, family is often born of blood, but it doesn't depend on blood. Nor is it exclusive of friendship. Family members can be your best friends, you know. And best friends, whether or not they are related to you, can be your family.

  Trenton Lee Stewart

  Best Friend, Family, Good Friend

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• One problem with being a leader, is that even among your friends you are alone, for it is you -- and you alone -- to whom the others look for final guidance.

  Trenton Lee Stewart

  Leader, Finals, Looks

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• The only rule is that there are no rules.

  Del Close

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• No one seems to realize how much we are driven by FEAR, the essential component of human personality. Everything else - from ambition to love to despair - derives in some way from this single powerful emotion.

  Trenton Lee Stewart

  Powerful, Ambition, Personality

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• Was it worse for him, Reynie wondered, to have felt loved and then rejected? Or was it worse to have always felt alone?

  Trenton Lee Stewart

  Rejected, Felt

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• Remember, children. For every exit, there is also an entrance. ~ Milligan, The Mysterious Benedict Society

  Trenton Lee Stewart

  Children, Exit, Mysterious

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• Something about this made Reynie uneasy. Had he done so badly? Was this meant to test his courage? He did as he was told, closing his eyes and bracing himself as best he could. "Why are you flinching?" the pencil woman asked. "I don't know. I thought maybe you were going to slap me." "Don't be ridiculous. I could slap you perfectly well with your eyes open. I'm only going to blindfold you.

  Trenton Lee Stewart

  Eye, Done, Tests

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• If we're just trying to be accurate, then how about 'The Doomed to Fail Bunch'?" said Constance. "Honestly! We can't even name ourselves.

  Trenton Lee Stewart

  Names, Trying, Failing

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• You are the smartest children i know. You just don't beleive it.

  Trenton Lee Stewart

  Children, Knows

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• 'Is that really the best you can say? An average-looking boy? An awful lot of boys are average-looking, S.Q.!' And poor S.Q., he just kept arguing that 'this boy was especially average-looking.' " ~ Kate Wetherall, The Mysterious Benedict Society

  Trenton Lee Stewart

  Boys, Average, Awful

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• Oh dear,"cried Rhonda just then, for Mr. Benedict, awash in strong emotion, has gone to sleep.with a sudden loud snore he toppled forward into the attentive arms of Rhonda and Number Two, who eased him to the floor. "What's wrong with him?" Constance asked. "He has narcolepsy," said Kate. "He steals a lot?" "That's kleptomania," Sticky said. "Mr. Benedict sleeps a lot.

  Trenton Lee Stewart

  Strong, Sleep, Two

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• They stared out their window at night enough to know where the darkest shadows lay, and it was to the darkest shadows they kept.

  Trenton Lee Stewart

  Night, Shadow, Window

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• Good grief! They're going to call us inside soon, and Sticky hasn't even met Madge yet!" "Who's Madge?" Sticky asked. "Her Majesty the Queen!

  Trenton Lee Stewart

  Queens, Grief, Majesty

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• Poor Kate,"said Constance,"she's lost her marbles.

  Trenton Lee Stewart

  Poor, Lost, Said

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• I think when I started to write The Mysterious Benedict Society that I had that kind of thing in mind - the notion of having to be able to solve puzzles and riddles because enormous stakes rode upon your ability to do that.

  Trenton Lee Stewart

  Writing, Thinking, Mind

  "'Mysterious Benedict': Solve A Puzzle, Save The World". "All Things Considered", www.npr.org. March 26, 2012.

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• Daddy, will you take me to the mill, again?

  Trenton Lee Stewart

  Daddy, Mills, Take Me

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• The missing aren't missing, they're only departed, All minds keep all thoughts - so like gold - closely guarded.

  Trenton Lee Stewart

  Missing, Departed, Mind

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• Is this what family is like: the feeling that everyone’s connected, that with one piece missing, the whole thing’s broken?

  Trenton Lee Stewart

  Family, Broken, Missing

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• The gym is always open, except when it's closed.

  Trenton Lee Stewart

  Gym

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• Children are capable of such open rudeness.

  Trenton Lee Stewart

  Children, Rudeness, Capable

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• Reynie's fce fell. 'It's not funny, Kate.' For a moment - a fleeting moment - Kate looked desperately sad. 'Well, of course it's not funny, Reynie Muldoon. But what do you want me to do? Cry?

  Trenton Lee Stewart

  Fleeting, Want, Cry

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• Every great thinker keeps a journal, you know.

  Trenton Lee Stewart

  Thinker, Journal, Knows

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• Rules and school are tools for fools! I don't give two mules for rules.

  Trenton Lee Stewart

  School, Two, Giving

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• Milligan! Come and tell us why you're so dreadfully glum!" ~ Constance, The Mysterious Benedict Society

  Trenton Lee Stewart

  Mysterious

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• Why, then, do you think the white player might have done it?" Reynie considered. He imagined himself moving out his knight only to bring it right back to where it started. Why would he ever do such a thing? At last he said,"Perhaps because he doubted himself.

  Trenton Lee Stewart

  Moving, Player, Thinking

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