Prettier Than Quotes & Sayings

Everything I wear doesnt put me in the league of women. If I were a boy, I could look a lot prettier than a lot of boys I know. — Jane Birkin

Who's an ex-diplomat of all people to complain if the wrapping is prettier than what's inside? — John Le Carre

She (her mother) noticed that I was prettier than I was at home. Thus do girls change color in the warmth of masculine desire, whether they are fifteen or thirty. — Colette

Now observe; if the artist does not understand the sacredness of the truth of Impression, and supposes that, once quitting hold of his first thought, he may by Philosophy compose something prettier than he saw and mightier than he felt, it is all over with him. Every such attempt at composition will be utterly abortive, and end in something that is neither true nor fanciful; something geographically useless, and intellectually absurd. — John Ruskin

You're prettier than I imagined you", Raphael said. "Uh ... thank you," I said. "But I don't really ... "
"Wait,wait, I've got one," he interrupted. "Somebody better call God. Because Heaven's missing an angel! — Alexandra Adornetto

Moreover, the reward, as Hopkins envisioned it, was even more enticing. Who, after all, doesn't want to be more beautiful? Who doesn't want a prettier smile? Particularly when all it takes is a quick brush with Pepsodent? HOPKINS'S CONCEPTION OF THE PEPSODENT HABIT LOOP After the campaign launched, a quiet week passed. Then two. In the third week, demand exploded. There were so many orders for Pepsodent that the company couldn't keep up. In three years, the product went international, and Hopkins was crafting ads in Spanish, German, and Chinese. Within a decade, Pepsodent was one of the top-selling goods in the world, and remained America's best-selling toothpaste for more than thirty years.2.10,2.11 — Charles Duhigg

Small female children. They're devious, but they're prettier than sons, and they smell better. (The Spirit of the Prophecy to Garion) — David Eddings

ELLE! DID YOU PUT A STUFFED CAT IN MY STUDY?" A pretty woman on the fat pony galloped out of the courtyard, calling over her shoulder. "I thought you might like the company of one of your own kind!" A handsome man emerged from the courtyard, riding the large gelding. "Elle!" "What's wrong? Cat got your tongue?" the woman laughed. "I look nothing like a cat anymore! Must you continue to obsess over felines?" The man cued his horse into a trot. The woman pulled her pony to a halt a stone's throw from the farmer and his children. "True. It's my own fault, I suppose. I shouldn't have married a man who is prettier than I am." The man on the mouse-colored gelding looked murderous. The — K.M. Shea

Guys should not be allowed to be prettier than girls; it just isn't right, or fair. — Rachel Van Dyken

I'm glad you're doing this story on us and not on the WNBA. We're so much prettier than all the other women in sports. — Martina Hingis

I'm sorry I stood there like a half-wit, Count Petroff," she told him matter-of-factly, "but I was a bit
surprised. After all, it's not everyday that I see a man who's prettier than I am."
(Alexandra) — Johanna Lindsey

She was prettier than a bouquet of roses and crazier than a headless chicken. Fitting in was not an option. — Marissa Meyer

His wardrobe was extensive-very extensive-not strictly classical perhaps, not quite new, nor did it contain any one garment made precisely after the fashion of any age or time, but everything was more or less spangled; and what can be prettier than spangles! — Charles Dickens

It's lies. It's all lies. Some of them are just prettier than others, that's all. People see what they think is there. — Terry Pratchett

And on a personal level,my boyfriend and I love eachother enough,and we have enough respect for each other, that we're bigger than that."
I laughed."Nick and I are not bigger than that.We are very,very small."
Daisy nodded. "And then,of course, there's the fact that I'm prettier than my boyfriend. He may fly higher,but I look better doing it." She turned around backward. "I mean, even in these snow pants,check out my ass. — Jennifer Echols

I've been ignored by prettier women than you,
but none who carried the heavy pitchers of silence
so far, without spilling a drop. — Jeffrey McDaniel

I do not know what I appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on a seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay undiscovered before me. (Brewster 1860, p. 331) — Neil DeGrasse Tyson

It isn't fair she should have everything and I nothing. She isn't better or cleverer or much prettier than me ... only luckier. — L.M. Montgomery

I would not be a rose upon the wall
A queen might stop at, near the palace-door,
To say to a courtier, "Pluck that rose for me,
It's prettier than the rest." O Romney Leigh!
I'd rather far be trodden by his foot,
Than lie in a great queen's bosom. — Elizabeth Barrett Browning

At once, she dropped her gaze 2 the floor so she wouldn't have 2 meet the stares because she knew exactly how she looked, which was bad, very bad, extra bad from the top of her dyed head to the tip of her tennis-shoed toes. She had an enormous urge to look up and say to the class, I'm prettier than this. Really. — Elizabeth George

You are brighter than the sun, prettier than a fresh flower, and sweeter than any chocolate. Your songs are always humming in my heart. I wish you a sweet sweetest day. — Debasish Mridha

There's just something about you, Bess. You're sweeter than the aroma of the blueberry muffin I devoured with you, prettier than the sun setting over the ocean back home, and tangier than the lemons you squeeze into your water. — Rachel Blaufeld

If making things seem prettier than they are is a lie, then making them seem uglier must be another. — Richard Russo

I didn't grow up thinking I was pretty; there was always a prettier girl than me. So I learned to be smart and tried to be funny and develop the inside of me, because I felt like that's what I had. — Kerry Washington

After all, tomorrow will be prettier than today. It all depends on your choices and actions, and if you are ready to make it. — Debasish Mridha

Fuck love, fuck Florida, Fuck Kit Isley and his prettier-than-me girlfriend. — Tarryn Fisher

I'm sure it's not what it looks like." Sophie's meek voice held a note of pity.
Brooke's, on the other hand, was laced with anger. "What the heck is he thinking?"
"There must be a reasonable explanation for his actions."
"Ugh. Could that dress be any shorter?"
"She's probably just a friend."
"You're way prettier than her, Dawn." "Maybe she's his cousin?" Sophie asked hopefully.
Brooke snorted. "Yeah, if you mean kissing cousin. — Ada Adams

As to the human race. There are many pretty and winning things about the human race. It is perhaps the poorest of all the inventions of all the gods but it has never suspected it once. There is nothing prettier than its naive and complacent appreciation of itself. It comes out frankly and proclaims without bashfulness or any sign of a blush that it is the noblest work of God. It has had a billion opportunities to know better, but all signs fail with this ass. I could say harsh things about it but I cannot bring myself to do it-it is like hitting a child. — Mark Twain

A man with awareness lives in a world much prettier and much richer than the world a man without awareness lives in! — Mehmet Murat Ildan

E was prettier than any girl, and that his skin was like sunshine with a suntan. — Rainbow Rowell

Try to fit in." Winter glanced at her, a moment of perfect clarity and even humor in the look. She was right. They were filthy. They were bloody. Winter was a well-loved princess who was prettier than a bouquet of roses and crazier than a headless chicken. Fitting in would be a miracle. — Marissa Meyer

Don't listen to those who say, you are taking too big a chance. Michelangelo would have painted the Sistine floor, and it would surely be rubbed out by today. Most important, don't listen when the little voice of fear inside you rears its ugly head and says "They are all smarter than you out there. They're more talented, they're taller, blonder, prettier, luckier, and they have connections." I firmly believe that if you follow a path that interests you, not to the exclusion of love, sensitivity, and cooperation with others, but with the strength of conviction that you can move others by your own efforts, and do not make success or failure the criteria by which you live, the chances are you'll be a person worthy of your own respects. — Neil Simon

My second thought was, I'm prettier than her. — Jenny Han

I'm no sexual siren. I see prettier girls than me in the grocery store every day. — Markie Post

She is prettier than her picture had prepared me for, blond curls, big blue eyes, like a fake child that someone would make in order to convince people to have children. — Kevin Wilson

zoegirl: on the phone, angela kept saying, "is it cuz tonnie's prettier than me? IS it?" i feel so bad for her. mad maddie: did she say anything to rob when she saw him? and did he see her? zoegirl: he saw her, all right. angela said he stared at her for like ten seconds, and then he turned to tonnie and started talking really animatedly, even though a blush had spread from his neck all the way up his face. zoegirl: angela grabbed chrissy and her mom and jerked them out the door, and then she burst into tears. mad maddie: that asshole — Lauren Myracle

Ugly's still ugly, no matter how you see it."
"An interesting assertion. Justify it."
"You bring twenty people in here," Adam told him, "and they'll all say the same thing. They'll all say you're ugly."
"Bring in twenty of me," Art said, "and we'd all say your ass is prettier than your face."
"There aren't twenty of you."
"No, you're right. I'm unique. So I can safely say that all androids find you ugly. Not all humans find me ugly. So, technically, I'm better looking than you, using objective criteria. — Bernard Beckett

There were plenty of girls at school prettier than Harriet, and nicer. But none of them were as smart, or as brave. How could he make her love him, make her notice when he wasn't there? — Donna Tartt

Was I wilfully blind when I married Michael? Of course I was. I knew about his heart condition - everyone did. But I fell in love with him and decided it didn't matter. We were going to live for ever, somehow. Now I know that the fact that we had the same initials, were both expatriates, had gone to the same university, and were of medium build made the relationship highly determined. But I might have done the research and discovered his short life expectancy or talked to psychologists about the pain of grieving or read books about the sadness of widowhood. But I didn't do any of those things. I looked away from those sad certainties and pretended that they weren't there.
Love is blind, not, as in mythology, because Cupid's arrows are random but because, once struck by them, we are left blind. When we love someone, we see them as smarter, wittier, prettier, stronger than anyone else sees them. — Margaret Heffernan

I have seen purer liqors, better segars, finer tobacco, truer guns and pistols, larger dirks and bowie knives, and prettier women courtesans here in San Francisco than in any other place I have ever visited. — Hinton Rowan Helper

Before I was married, I thought the sound of bangles jangling on my forearms would be delightful. I looked forward to being able to wear bells around my ankles and silver necklaces around my neck, but not any more, not since I had learned what they represented for the man who gave them. A necklace was no prettier than a piece of of rope that ties a goat to a tree, depriving it of freedom. — Phoolan Devi

Tell me what he was like as a baby."
"Why, Margaret, you must not be hurt, but he was much prettier than you were. I remember, when I first saw you in Dixon's arms, I said, 'Dear, what an ugly little thing! — Elizabeth Gaskell

It can be argued that the mathematics behind these images [of the orbit diagram for quadratic functions and the Mandelbrot set] is even prettier than the pictures themselves. — Robert L. Devaney

Because noir isn't really a new thing at all. It's just a fairy tale with guns. Your hardscrabble detective is nothing more than a noble knight with a cigarette and a disease where his heart should be. He talks prettier, that's all. He's no less idealistic - there're good women and bad women, good jobs and bad jobs. Justice and truth are always worth seeking. He pulls his fedora down like the visor on a suit of armour. He serves his lord faithfully whether he wants to or not. And he is in thrall to the idea of a woman. It's just that in detective stories, women are usually dead before the curtain goes up. In fairy tales, they're usually alive. — Catherynne M Valente

Prettier musings of high-wrought love and eternal constancy could never have passed along the streets of Bath, than Anne was sporting with from Camden-place to Westgate-buildings. It was almost enough to spread purification and perfume all the way. — Jane Austen

ready for whatever scooted out from under. The water was so deep I had my shortsleeve shirt rolled all the way up to my shoulders. I was aware of how long and skinny my arms must look to her. I know they looked that way to me. I felt pretty strange beside her, actually. Uncomfortable but excited. She was different from the other girls I knew, from Denise or Cheryl on the block or even the girls at school. For one thing she was maybe a hundred times prettier. As far as I was concerned she was prettier than Natalie Wood. Probably she was smarter than the girls I knew too, more sophisticated. She lived in New York City after all and had eaten lobsters. And she moved just like a boy. She had this strong hard body and easy grace about her. All that made me nervous and I missed the first one. Not an enormous crayfish but bigger than what we had. It scudded backward beneath the Rock. She asked if she could try. I gave her the — Jack Ketchum

True. It's my own fault, I suppose. I shouldn't have married a man who is prettier than I am. — K.M. Shea

A new adaptation of Jane Eyre came out every year, and every year it was exactly the same. An unknown actress would play Jane, and she was usually prettier than she should have been. A very handsome, very brooding, very 'ooh-la-la' man would play Rochester, and Judi Dench would play everyone else. — Catherine Lowell

I already know your sister is smarter. She's prettier than me too, but I didn't bet on that. I just wanted you to call her in here so she'd look at me again. It was worth the five bucks. — Suzanne Young

Surely a pretty woman never looks prettier than when making tea. — Mary Elizabeth Braddon

That tree is very old, but I never saw prettier blossoms on it than it now bears. That tree grows new wood each year. Like that apple tree, I try to grow a new little wood each year. — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The new car's a lot prettier than Lucy, my Sweet Caroline - she's a newer sedan, and, if I'm being perfectly honest, is actually a little bit of a risk. She's flashier than what I'd usually pick. I just couldn't resist her gorgeous shade of ruby red. — Alexandra Bracken

There's always going to be someone who is prettier than you, better than you in some way, but everyone has that something that makes them different. — Lana Parrilla

She refused to leave your side all bloody night", Sam remarked, with something that sounded like respect.
"She's a good friend," Griffin replied.
His old friend stared at him in amused disgust. "Griff, I'm your friend and even I wasn't about to sit here and watch you heal."
Griffin looked away, annoyed by the sudden heat in his cheeks. "Yes, well, she was a much prettier sight to wake up to than your ugly head."
"I'll have you know I've been told my eyes are like a night sky," came the mock-indignant reply. — Kady Cross

Empowered Women 101: Only an insecure woman with control issues will look outside her relationship and say other people are to blame for her husband's lack of focus, love and respect. A real woman knows that the problem isn't other people; it is her man. If he truly loved you he wouldn't have ever made you an option and went looking for what he felt you didn't have. Don't waste your time trying to convince someone to see your worth by destroying others. There will always be someone prettier, smarter, more spiritual and more accomplished than you to distract this person. A real woman knows her worth and will never have to train anyone to recognize it. — Shannon L. Alder

There's nothing prettier in the world than a melody. I can get lost in a song with a melody. A lot of times I have, and the song wasn't that good, but I would get lost in that melody, and I'd want to do the song. — George Jones

After all there is something about a wedding-gown prettier than in any other gown in the world. — Douglas William Jerrold

I make it a policy never to seduce anyone prettier than I am."
I laughed. "I think that was an insult. — Leigh Bardugo

I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me. — Isaac Newton

A pair of great heels was much more satisfying than a man. They lasted longer, and better yet, they didn't leave me for someone prettier. — Cindi Madsen

He watched her closely. "Why did he leave you?"
"How did you - " She broke off and scowled as she understood what he was doing, throwing out provocative questions and gleaning the truth from her reactions. "Bother. All right, I'll tell you. He left me for another woman. A prettier, younger woman who happened to be his employer's daughter. It would have been a very advantageous marriage for him."
"You're wrong."
Amelia gave him a perplexed glance. "I assure you, it would have been an enormously advantageous - "
"She couldn't possibly have been prettier than you."
Her eyes widened at the compliment. "Oh," she whispered. — Lisa Kleypas

Each of these moments was a pearl on a string, one prettier and more perfect than the next. — Ann Brashares

I'm glad to report that even now, at this late day, a blank sheet of paper holds the greatest excitement there is for me - more promising than a silver cloud, prettier than a little red wagon. It holds all the hope there is, all fears. I can remember, really quite distinctly, looking a sheet of paper square in the eyes when I was seven or eight years old and thinking, 'This is where I belong, this is it'. — E.B. White

Women give life! That on its own is inspiring.Besides, women are prettier than men. — Jujubee

I used to be prettier than I am, but I think I look better now. I was a pretty boy. Particularly in my early movies. I don't like looking at them so much. There's a sort of pretty thing about me. — Christopher Walken

The computer hummed, sliced Roarke's face onto the screen. Such an intriguing couple.
His background was no prettier than the cop's had been. But he'd chosen, at least initially, the other side of the law to make his mark. And his fortune.
Now they were a set. A set that could be destroyed on a whim.
But not yet. Not for some little time yet.
After all, the game had just begun. — J.D. Robb

You ask me about my ex-wife? That is not polite. But I will answer. I got another wife now. Much younger, much nicer, much prettier. And so much more intelligent than Benetton.' — Oliviero Toscani

we try looking there?" "Good idea," Rachel said, walking toward it. "Oh, aren't the trees beautiful with all their blossoms?" The others agreed. Delicate sprays of pinky-white flowers lined the branches of the apple trees. "And that one is even prettier than the others," Kirsty said, pointing out a tree a short distance away. It was covered in blossoms. "I wonder why it's flowering so well?" A thought struck her and she stopped. Kirsty looked excitedly at Tia. "You don't think it has anything to do with your petal's magic powers, do you?" Tia's eyes lit up. — Daisy Meadows

She liked to dress well because she thought this made up for plain and ordinary looks. In fact she was prettier than she knew. — Hyeonseo Lee

My mom always said, 'Don't date a guy who thinks he's prettier than you.' — Alicia Keys

The girls in California were probably prettier in a standard sense than the New York girls
blonder and in better health, I guess; but I still preferred the way the girls in New York looked
stranger and more neurotic (a girl always looked more beautiful and fragile when she was about to have a nervous breakdown). — Andy Warhol

That beauty may, for instance, be composed of lovely flowers, and glittering streams, and blue sky and white clouds; and yet the thing that impresses us most, and which we should be sorriest to lose, may be a thin grey film on the extreme horizon, not so large, in the space of the scene it occupies, as a piece of gossamer on a near-at-hand bush, nor in any wise prettier to the eye than the gossamer; but because the gossamer is known by us for a little bit of spider's work, and the other grey film is known to mean a mountain ten thousand feet high, inhabited by a race of noble mountaineers we are solemnly impressed by the aspect of it, and yet all the while the thoughts and knowledge which cause us to receive this impression are so obscure that we are not conscious of them. — Gaston Bachelard

The seventeenth-century baby slept, as his nineteenth-century descendant does, in a cradle. Nothing could be prettier than the old cradles that have survived successive years of use with many generations of babies. — Alice Morse Earle

You are prettier than you can imagine. — Debasish Mridha

It must be cool, having a twin, though."
"Ah, not sure if cool is the right word." He flashed a grin. "But we're not twins."
Out in the crowded hallway, Bethany frowned. "You're not? Could've fooled me and the world."
His laugh was husky, deep, and really nice to hear. "We're triplets."
Her eyes popped wide. "Holy crap, there're three of you?"
"We have a sister." He walked close to her, so their shoulders bumped every few steps. She found that deliciously distracting. "She's fraternal and a lot prettier than us. — Jennifer L. Armentrout

I'm not laughing, and I'm not running. I wont lie either. You're a chilling sight to behold. I've had nightmares of monsters prettier than you." She stepped closer and raised her other hand to thread her fingers through his hair. This time he didn't flinch away. "But you're still you under all this flux nonsense. Only a fool of a woman would run from such an extraordinary man, and I am no fool, Ballard de Sauveterre. — Grace Draven

Winter was a well-loved princess who was prettier than a bouquet of roses and crazier than a headless chicken. — Marissa Meyer

In New York the sky is bluer, and the grass is greener, and the girls are prettier, and the steaks are thicker, and the buildings are higher, and the streets are wider, and the air is finer, than the sky, or the grass, or the girls, or the steaks, or the air of any place else in the world. — Edna Ferber

I have seen purer liquors, better segars, finer tobacco, truer guns and pistols, larger dirks and bowie knives, and prettier courtesans here in San Francisco than in any other place I have ever visited; and it is my unbiased opinion that California can and does furnish the best bad things that are available in America. — Hinton Helper

Having a leading man who is actually prettier than you are is quite upsetting. — Kristin Scott Thomas

My mom tries to comfort me by saying that girls like Heather Campbell tend to peak early in life and then quickly fade. That's why she looks so much better than everyone now. But by the time I go to my ten-year reunion, I'll be way prettier than she is. To which I always reply with the same statement, "I don't want to be pretty in ten years. I want to be pretty now."
Because what good is it to me now that I might or might not be drop-dead gorgeous when I'm twenty-seven? It's not like I can go to school every day with a big cardboard sign around my neck that says, "Trust me, in ten years, I'll look like this." And then an arrow pointing to a picture of a supermodel. — Jessica Brody

I'm not careful," she said as he touched his lips to her temple. His warm breath stirred the curls by her ear. "I'm just not you."
She felt him laugh. His hands slid down her sides, gripped her waist. "That, you are definitely not. Much prettier."
"You must love me," she said, breath hitching as his lips traveled excruciatingly slowly along her jaw. "I never thought you'd admit anyone was prettier than you. — Cassandra Clare

Ransom really looked at the other man for the first time, shook his head, stared again."Holy hell, your eyes are like a fucking viper's."
Venom raised an eyebrow."You have hair prettier than one of Astaad's concubines."
Ransom gave the vampire the finger.
Venom grinned. — Nalini Singh

It's not prettier or better than other places and it sure a shell isn't an easy place, but I know how to live here. And that counts. — Deborah Coates

You are prettier than I." She put more pressure on his arm. "Perhaps you could offer yourself as whore instead. — Kiersten White

There is beauty in knowing that the unknown has the potential of being prettier than anything we have ever known. — Jeni Dhodary

I'm certainly never going to say that someone is prettier than Julia Louis-Dreyfus, but someone who would make her crazy for being young and good-looking. — David Mandel

I'm a wallflower. I only agreed to take part in the Season to keep my sister Cassandra company. She's my twin, the nicer, prettier one, and you're the kind of husband she's been hoping for. If you'll let me go fetch her, you could compromise her, and then I'll be off the hook." Seeing his blank look, she explained, "People certainly wouldn't expect you to marry both of us."
"I'm afraid I never ruin more than one young woman a night." His tone was a mockery of politeness. "A man has to draw the line somewhere. — Lisa Kleypas

The last one's hard. Marriage is always a balancing act, and it's never a good idea for one partner to get too big a head, but I'm afraid that's what's going to happen here. People write a lot of things about Eric Dillon's talent, and most of it's true. But nobody writes about the important things. The fact that he's a wonderful father and the best husband a woman could have. That fact that he cares about other people so much that he sometimes scares me. That doesn't mean he's perfect, of course. It's hard living with a man who's prettier than all of your girlfriends put together. But if it weren't for Eric Dillon, I wouldn't be here tonight. He loved me when I wasn't lovable, and I guess when it comes right down to it, that's pretty much what family is all about. Thank you, sweetheart. — Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Being blonde means people decide on sight that you are much prettier and nicer than you really are, just as Americans automatically add 10 points to someone's IQ when they hear an English accent. Fact. — Rachel Johnson

Cassandra watched him go, slumping a little as the distance between them grew. "He was so nice."
"Yeah."
"And look at that butt."
I considered said item. "Definitely superior. But not for Cassandra hands?"
She shook her head sadly. "Another person stands between us now. He'll meet her within the month."
"Is she prettier than you?"
Cassandra started to smile.
"Well?"
"No"
"Ha!"
"Jaz!"
"Honey, we've got to take our victories where we can find them. — Jennifer Rardin

I am very happy to say I look just like my dad. But mothers always think their children are prettier than they really are, and mine has always told me I look like Tom Cruise. — James Blunt

There is nothing
prettier in the
whole wide world
than a girl
in love
with every breath she takes. — Atticus Poetry

I didn't want to go to my room. I wanted to go see Gary and bitch and moan and braid his mane and have him tell me that Justin was a giant cockfucker and I was so much prettier than him. — T.J. Klune

Me have a rule with woman. If your titty prettier and your body hotter than my woman I'll deal with you. Otherwise, fuck off. — Marlon James

How is it that one woman is ... enough ... for three men?" "I don't know." "She must be a very talented courtesan." "Callie." "Well, that was what she was. Wasn't it?" "Yes." "How very fascinating!" She smiled brightly. "I've never met a courtesan, you know." "I could have surmised as such." "She looked just as I imagined they did! Well, she was rather prettier." Ralston's eyes darted around the room as though he was looking for the quickest escape route. "Callie. Wouldn't you rather gamble than talk about courtesans? — Sarah MacLean

To play well, you need good players, but a good player almost always has the problem of a lack of efficiency. He always wants to do things prettier than strictly necessary. — Johan Cruijff

Looking closely at de Vries, he added, 'You are a very ugly man, Piter. Even with my disease, I'm still prettier than you. — Brian Herbert

She was a very small girl with a face as lovely and fresh as her son's face - a very small girl. Most of the time she knew she was smarter and prettier than anyone else. But now and then a lonely fear would fall upon her so that she seemed surrounded by a tree-tall forest of enemies. Then every thought and word and look was aimed to hurt her, and she had no place to run and no place to hide. And she would cry in panic because there was no escape and no sanctuary.

Then one day she was reading a book - brown, with a silver title, and the cloth was broken and the boards thick. It was Alice in Wonderland. But it was the bottle which said, "Drink me" that had changed her life. — John Steinbeck