Whenever someone makes out a guest list, the people not on it become officially uninvited, and that makes them the enemies of the invited. Guest lists are just a way of choosing sides.

E. L. Konigsburg

Can you know excellence if you've never seen it? Can you know good if you have seen only bad?

E. L. Konigsburg

excellence ifs knows

It often takes more courage to be a passenger than a driver.

E. L. Konigsburg

passengers inaction drivers

Talk was like the vitamins of our friendship: Large daily doses kept it healthy.

E. L. Konigsburg

dose vitamins healthy

Every job in the world has some built-in boredom. No man can stay excited about something every minute he is doing it. Routine is as necessary to life as water is to beer; it is the base that holds the flavors and spices together.

E. L. Konigsburg

beer jobs men

True simplicity is elegant.

E. L. Konigsburg

elegant simplicity

Biding one's time is a very different thing from patience.

E. L. Konigsburg

different-things different waiting

I believe in courtesy. It is the way we avoid hurting people's feelings. She thought that maybe, just maybe, western civilization was in decline because people did not take time to take tea at four o'clock.

E. L. Konigsburg

hurt civilization believe

Five minutes of planning are worth fifteen minutes of just looking.

E. L. Konigsburg

planning fifteen minutes

I waited for her to catch up, and when I did, she slowed down, and I missed seeing the light in her hair. I never told Nadia how much I liked seeing the halo the sunlight made of her hair. Sometimes silence is a habit that hurts.

E. L. Konigsburg

light hurt love

They called themselves The Souls. They told Ms. Olinski that they were The Souls before they were a team, but she told them that they were a team as soon as they became The Souls. Then after a while, teacher and team agreed that they were arguing chicken-or-egg. Whichever way it began--chicken-or-egg, team-or-The Souls--it definitely ended with an egg. Definitely, an egg.

E. L. Konigsburg

eggs team teacher

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.

E. L. Konigsburg

tuna-fish nuts home

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.

E. L. Konigsburg

cupcakes home running

But happiness is not always loud and bright and crowded. Happiness ripens like a watermelon, sweet and rosy on the inside with only a thin top layer altogether free of small black pits. And, like a watermelon, the whole thing can be covered with a plain dark rind.

E. L. Konigsburg

black dark sweet

Never have a long conversation with anyone who says "between you and I.

E. L. Konigsburg

long-conversations conversation long

Going to school- picking an apple Getting an education- eating it

E. L. Konigsburg

apples eating school

Ninety percent of who you are is invisible." - Mrs. Zender

E. L. Konigsburg

ninety percent invisible

There were times in school when a person had to do things fast, cheap, and without character.

E. L. Konigsburg

persons character school

How can you know what is missing if you’ve never met it? You must know of something’s existence before you can notice its absence.

E. L. Konigsburg

mets missing absence

I've been the oldest child since before you were born

E. L. Konigsburg

oldest-child born children

The eyes are the windows of the soul.... If someone was to look into your eyes, what would you want them to see?

E. L. Konigsburg

eye soul looks