John D. Fitzgerald > Quotes

“And just to make sure, I will personally give two black eyes and a bloody nose to anybody who does tell.”
― John D. Fitzgerald, The Great Brain

“said. “And my pa said to thank you for him. My ma said God bless you and she would pray for you. Ain’t no way for me to say what I feel inside for you making me so I’m not useless anymore. I guess I’ll just have to thank you in my prayers and ask God to bless you too.”
― John D. Fitzgerald, The Great Brain

“figured Tom would have liked it better to be thanked from the bottom of Papa’s purse but didn’t say anything.”
― John D. Fitzgerald, More Adventures of the Great Brain

“And I’m going to let you write it just as you said it here today. Even in death Old Butch is going to make some boys happy. Mr. Gillis told me after hearing your eulogy that he is going to find a pup for his son, Roger. And there are others who heard your eulogy or who will read the obituary in the Advocate who will change their minds about their sons owning a dog. I’m proud of you, son.”
― John D. Fitzgerald, More Adventures of the Great Brain

“God love that boy,” Mamma said. “Sometimes I get so exasperated with him I could scream, and then he does something that makes me very proud he is my son. Of course he can have the old flag.”
― John D. Fitzgerald, More Adventures of the Great Brain

“If he is dead, he can’t eat,” he said. “The Indians always bury their dead with enough food to last until they get to the happy hunting ground,”
― John D. Fitzgerald, More Adventures of the Great Brain

“Papa glared at Sweyn. “The death of any living thing, be it a plant or an animal or a person is never ridiculous,” he said. “You will march in that funeral procession with your brothers.”
― John D. Fitzgerald, More Adventures of the Great Brain

“When we got to the railroad tracks, I looked over my shoulder. Papa and about a hundred adults had joined the funeral procession. You would have thought we were burying the Mayor.”
― John D. Fitzgerald, More Adventures of the Great Brain

“Seth, your mother is the biggest gossip in town. It will be your job to report the gossip.”
― John D. Fitzgerald, More Adventures of the Great Brain

“tapping”
― John D. Fitzgerald, Me and My Little Brain

“Papa laid aside a book he was reading. “He gets it from his father,” Papa said. “His father is always complaining about immigrants coming to this country and taking jobs away from Americans.” “But Sammy’s grandfather was an immigrant,” Tom said. “When you come right down to it,” Papa said, “we are all immigrants except the Indians. What men like Mr. Leeds fail to understand is that it is the mingling of the different cultures, talents, and know-how of the different nationalities which will one day make this the greatest nation on earth. All intolerant persons must have somebody or something to hate. Mr. Leeds is an intolerant person who hates immigrants.”
― John D. Fitzgerald, The Great Brain

“Tom held out his arms in a pleading gesture. “You are both asking for a miracle,” he protested. “Then let your great brain perform one,” Mamma said.”
― John D. Fitzgerald, More Adventures of the Great Brain

“The whiskey rules it out.”
― John D. Fitzgerald, The Great Brain

“Mamma,” I said looking her right in the eye, “you gave birth to a son who is a stupid jackass.”
― John D. Fitzgerald, The Great Brain at the Academy

“Whoever heard of a funeral procession for a dog,” he said. “It is ridiculous.”
― John D. Fitzgerald, More Adventures of the Great Brain

“that boy could talk his way around anything.”
― John D. Fitzgerald, The Great Brain

“at the Throttle ALL WEEK I WONDERED what could possibly have happened to Tom on his first train ride that made it the most exciting experience of his life. When I finally received his second letter I understood why he had said that all the kids in town would turn green with envy. When I showed the kids the letter they didn’t actually turn green any more than a yellow-bellied coward has a yellow belly. But you never saw such a bunch of envious kids in your life. When Tom came home for the Christmas vacation with Sweyn he told Papa, Mamma, Aunt Bertha, our four-year-old foster brother Frankie, and me all about riding in the locomotive from Provo to Salt Lake City.”
― John D. Fitzgerald, The Great Brain at the Academy

“Why, oh, why did you have to give birth to a son who hasn’t given us a moment’s peace since the day he was born?”
― John D. Fitzgerald, More Adventures of the Great Brain

“steps”
― John D. Fitzgerald, Me and My Little Brain

“every”
― John D. Fitzgerald, Me and My Little Brain

“Abie is dead,” she said as tears toppled down her cheeks. “Three times he fell carrying his cross, just as Christ did, and we were too blind to see. May God have mercy on us.”
― John D. Fitzgerald, The Great Brain

“You talk as though I were some kind of crook,”
― John D. Fitzgerald, More Adventures of the Great Brain

“but it looks as if us little grade-school kids have more courage than you big Academy fellows.”
― John D. Fitzgerald, More Adventures of the Great Brain

“Adenville Weekly Advocate”
― John D. Fitzgerald, The Great Brain Does It Again

“You aren’t going to drag Old Butch out of town and leave him for the buzzards,”
― John D. Fitzgerald, More Adventures of the Great Brain

“Jimmie was in the kitchen where his mother was preparing breakfast for her boarders”
― John D. Fitzgerald, The Great Brain

“At least I wasn’t leading the pack like you,”
― John D. Fitzgerald, More Adventures of the Great Brain

“Frankie”
― John D. Fitzgerald, The Great Brain Is Back