Ramona Quimby Quotes

“Ramona required accuracy from books as well as people.”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona Quimby, Age 8

“How can there be no such word as can't? Ramona wondered. Mrs. Rudge had just said can't. If there was so such word as can't then Mrs. Rudge could not have said there was no such word as can't. Therefore, what Mrs. Rudge said could not be true.”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona and Her Mother

“Haven't you noticed grown-ups aren't perfect?" asked Mrs. Quimby. "Especially when they're tired."
"Then how come you expect kids to be so perfect all the time?" demanded Ramona.”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona and Her Mother

“Her mother had said the words she longed to hear. Her mother could not get along without her. She felt warm, and safe and comforted.”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona and Her Mother

“For the first time, Ramona began to doubt that her father was the best artist in the whole world. This thought made her feel sad...”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona Quimby, Age 8

“She did not want her father's hair to grow thin or her mother's hair to grow gray. She wanted her parents to stay exactly as they were forever and ever.”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona Quimby, Age 8

“She wanted a grown-up to be wrong for a change. She was tired of the rightness of grown-ups.”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona's World

“Grown-ups are supposed to be perfect."
Both her parents laughed. "Well, they are!" Ramona insisted, annoyed by their laughter.”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona and Her Mother

“Grown-ups often forgot that no child likes to be ordered to be nice to another child.”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona Quimby, Age 8

“Until this minute she had thought all adults were supposed to like all children. She understood by now misunderstandings were to be expected- she had had several with teachers - and often children and grown-ups did not agree, but things somehow worked out. For a grown-up to actually dislike a child and try to shame her, she was sure had to be wrong, very, very wrong.”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona Forever

“We can't always do what we want in life," answered her father, "so we do the best we can.”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona Forever

“Nobody had to tell Ramona life was full of disappointments. She already knew.”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona and Her Mother

“Her age was difficult too- not old enough to sit down with her mother and sew something she wanted to sew and too old to go pulling out a whole box of Kleenex and flinging it all over the house like Willa Jean. People should not think being seven-and-a-half was easy because it wasn't”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona and Her Mother

“Scrimp and pinch to make ends meet, thought Ramona, liking the sound of the words.”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona and Her Mother

“She felt all churned up inside, as if she didn't know whether to cry or burst out of the house shouting, My mother and father had a fight!”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona and Her Mother

“Maybe grown-ups weren't perfect, but they should be, her parents most of all. They should be cheerful, loving, patient, never sick and never tired. Fun too.”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona and Her Mother

“Willa Jean did not feel she was beautiful because she was a healthy child. She felt beautiful like a grown-up lady on TV.”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona Quimby, Age 8

“Yard Apes!" yelled Ramona, her name for the sort of boys who always got the best balls, who were always first on the playground, and who chased their soccer balls through other people's hopscotch games.”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona Quimby, Age 8

“Beezus has told her the way to remember how to spell the kind of principal who was the principal of a school was to remember the word ended in p-a-l, and not -p-l-e, was because the principal was her pal.”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona Quimby, Age 8

“She knew her mother and father loved one another, but, sometimes when they were tired and hurried, or when they had long, serious conversations after the girls had gone to bed, she wondered and worried, because she knew other children whose parents had stopped loving each one another. Now she knew everything was all right.”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona Quimby, Age 8

“It isn't fair, Ramona told herself, even though grown-ups were always telling her life was not fair. It wasn't fair that life was not fair.”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona Forever

“Nothing in the world was worse than unhappy parents. Nothing. When parents were unhappy, the whole world seemed to go wrong.”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona Forever

“Ramona was the sort of girl who was always early because something might happen that she didn't want to miss.”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona's World

“People often called Ramona bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. When she was younger, she blinked her eyes, held up her hands like paws, and wiggled her bottom as if she were wagging a tail.”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona's World

“Mrs. Quimby looked amused, which Ramona found pleasant, not like bring laughed at.”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona's World

“The book I read said ten is the nicest age of growing up. It said ten-year-olds are pleasant and agreeable”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona's World

“Ramona did not know what to say. She did not feel words like darling or adorable fitted this baby.”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona Forever

“It was a warm September day, and Ramona, neat and clean, with lunch bag in hand, half skipped, half hopped, scrunching through the dry leaves on the sidewalk.”
― Beverly Cleary

“She was often excited. She liked to be excited.”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona's World

“You have a little brother," she reminded him.
"I know," answered Yard Ape, "but we just keep him for a pet.”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona's World