Louise Fitzhugh Quotes & Sayings

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. — Louise Fitzhugh

[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. — Louise Fitzhugh

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 — Louise Fitzhugh

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. — Louise Fitzhugh

Why am I a loser? She sat very still.
Because it pleases my father. — Louise Fitzhugh

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

Her room felt wonderful to her, as usual. She looked around with satisfaction ... She imagined to herself that she would always live this way, even after she had grown up and moved away from her family. She planned to have exactly the same room wherever she was, because this room was her. No matter what happened out there in the rest of the world, she felt totally comfortable once she got into this room and closed the door. — Louise Fitzhugh

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

I WONDER IF WHEN YOU DREAM ABOUT SOMEBODY THEY DREAM ABOUT YOU. — Louise Fitzhugh

Shy people are angry people, — Louise Fitzhugh

She would always say that people who try to control people and change people's habits are the ones that make all the trouble. If you don't like somebody, walk away, she said, but don't try and make them like you.
Harriet, on what Ole Golly says — Louise Fitzhugh

This was too much. I refuse. I absolutely REFUSE to be an onion. — Louise Fitzhugh

I think that's whats wrong with the world. No one says what they feel, they always hold it inside. They're sad, but they don't cry. They're happy, but they don't dance or sing. They're angry, but they don't scream. Because if they do, they feel ashamed. And that's the worst feeling in the world. So everyone walks with their heads down and no one sees how beautiful the sky is. — Louise Fitzhugh

Harriet pushed her hair back and looked at him seriously. 'Sport, what are you going to be when you grow up?'
'You know what. You know I'm going to be a ball player.'
'Well, I'm going to be a writer. And when I say that's a mountain, that's a mountain.' Satisfied, she turned back to her town. — Louise Fitzhugh

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

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 — Louise Fitzhugh

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. — Louise Fitzhugh

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

If Marion Hawthorne doesn't watch out, she's going to grow up into a lady Hitler. — Louise Fitzhugh

THERE IS MORE TO THIS THING OF LOVE THAN MEETS THE EYE. I AM GOING TO HAVE TO THINK ABOUT THIS A GREAT DEAL BUT I DON'T THINK IT WILL GET ME ANYWHERE. I THINK MAYBE THEY'RE ALL RIGHT WHEN THEY SAY THERE ARE DOME THINGS I WON'T KNOW ABOUT UNTIL I'M OLDER. — Louise Fitzhugh

WHEN SOMEBODY GOES AWAY THERE'S THINGS YOU WANT TO TELL THEM. WHEN SOMEBODY DIES MAYBE THAT'S THE WORST THING. YOU WANT TO TELL THEM THINGS THAT HAPPEN AFTER. — Louise Fitzhugh

Harriet: How do you practice being an onion? — Louise Fitzhugh

Turning on the shower, he thought of the wildly fancy bathroom at Charlotte's house. It was funny to think of, but the bathrooms he liked weren't fancy; this one, and the one at Seymour's, and the one at Harry's. They weren't fancy, but they were home. He got in the shower. The one squirt that always went haywire hit him right in the eye. He laughed up into the warm water running over his ears. — Louise Fitzhugh

SOMETHING TERRIBLE IS GOING TO HAPPEN. I KNOW IT. EVERY TIME I HAD A BAD DREAM I FEEL LIKE LEAVING TOWN. THEN I FEEL THAT SOMETHING TERRIBLE IS GOING TO HAPPEN. AND THIS IS THE WORST DREAM I'VE EVER HAD IN MY WHOLE LIFE. — Louise Fitzhugh

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

I'm going to take you somewhere. It's time you began to see the world. You're eleven years old and it's time you saw something. — Louise Fitzhugh

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

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. — Louise Fitzhugh

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. — Louise Fitzhugh

Harriet: Is it fun being married?
Ole Golly: How should I know? I've never been married. However, I doubt it's all fun. Nothing ever is, you know. — Louise Fitzhugh

People who love work, love life. — Louise Fitzhugh

YOU CAN'T BE TOO OLD TO SPY EXCEPT IF YOU WERE FIFTY YOU MIGHT FALL OFF A FIRE ESCAPE, BUT YOU COULD SPY AROUND ON THE GROUND A LOT. — Louise Fitzhugh

Good manners are very important, particularly in the morning. — Louise Fitzhugh

Life is very strange. — Louise Fitzhugh

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

There are as many ways to live as there are people. — Louise Fitzhugh

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! — Louise Fitzhugh

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

It feels ... as though doors were opening all over the world... It's bigger, somehow, the world. — Louise Fitzhugh

Writers don't care what they eat. They just care what you think of them — Louise Fitzhugh

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. — Louise Fitzhugh