The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict Quotes

“In the candle's flickering light, the library's thousands of books emerged from the shadows, and for a moment Nicholas could not help admiring them again. During free time he had almost never looked up from the pages he was reading, but now he saw the books anew, from without rather than from within, and was reminded of how beautiful they were simply as objects. The geometrical wonder of them all, each book on its own and all the books together, row upon row, the infinite patterns and possibilities they presented. They were truly lovely.”
― Trenton Lee Stewart, The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict

“No sooner had he thought this than he realized what was anchoring his happiness. It was purpose. He knew what he wanted to do. He knew the way he thought things should be, and Mr. Harinton was proving that other people--even adults--could feel the same way. Nicholas had something to aim for now. He might not know what he wanted to be when he grew up, but he knew with absolute certainty how he wanted to be.”
― Trenton Lee Stewart, The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict

“Nicholas Benedict did have an exceptional gift for knowing things (more exceptional, in fact, than most adults would have thought possible), and yet not even he could know that this next chapter was to be the most unusual-and most important-of his entire childhood. Indeed, the strange days that lay ahead would change him forever, though for now they had less substance than the mist through which he ran.”
― Trenton Lee Stewart, The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict

“…I see that something’s are hard to do, but that you can’t live with yourself if you don’t do them. I see that the best way to help myself is to help the people I care about. The rest will sort itself out. It has to, right?”
― Trenton Lee Stewart, The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict

“If Nicholas Benedict truly had been able to see the future, his own would have startled him to sleep at once, for he would have seen that he was destined to do things far greater than he ever could have imagined – that wonderful and amazing people would one day be drawn to him like metal to a magnet; that together with Nicholas they would form a most unusual kind of family; and that together, during one of the world’s darkest, most dangerous hours, they would change the course of history… For now he was simply a little boy on a cot, trying to fight off sleep as he had done countless times before…”
― Trenton Lee Stewart, The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict

“Mr. Harinton was real.

There were adults in the world who would actually make sacrifices for others - not just for their own families but for anyone who needed help.

Nicholas had always had the impression that families looked after one another, and he had come to understand that, on rare ocassions, children would do the same... But this was different.

What Mr. Harinton was doing certainly helped Nicolas - but it also simply felt right to Nicholas. It made him want to be exactly like Mr. Harinton himself.”
― Trenton Lee Stewart, The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict

“In his mind's eye, he saw his dream of a new life drifting away like a lost balloon. And for some time he sat there, hating to see it go. But then it was gone, and he began to invent a new dream, and he began to feel better.”
― Trenton Lee Stewart, The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict

“Shall I tell you what I’m thinking, Mrs. Ferrier?” “Heavens no, Nicholas! That would take hours, and we have only moments.”
― Trenton Lee Stewart, The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict

“For it is a curious fact about secret meetings that a bond almost always forms among the participants, a bond that can feel both mysterious and powerful.”
― Trenton Lee Stewart, The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict

“Every unfamiliar trail is an invitation,”
― Trenton Lee Stewart, The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict

“The laces had broken and were so short that tying them was like performing surgery on an insect.”
― Trenton Lee Stewart, The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict

“Nicholas lay with his hands on his chest, thinking how hollow it felt, like an empty gourd. He had never missed having a family, though he had wanted one all his life.”
― Trenton Lee Stewart, The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict

“The third question, thankfully, was less emotional. It read: “What is wrong with this statement?” How funny, Reynie thought, and marking down his answer he felt somewhat cheered. “It isn’t a statement at all,” he wrote. “It’s a question.”
― Trenton Lee Stewart, The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict

“Mr. Furrow jerked a thumb toward the mule in the back of the barn. "Rabbit'll kill anything comes near his carrot if he hasn't done with it. And he'll kick you if you make him go too fast in the field. I'd whip him, but he's so old a whipping might kill him, and he's our last and only mule. So we just keep away from his carrot and we keep it slow. That's the rules with Rabbit.”
― Trenton Lee Stewart, The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict

“After all he had accomplished, and considering how much he had learned and how far he had come, it is a curious fact—indeed, a remarkable one—that what Nicholas wanted now, more than anything, was to get started.”
― Trenton Lee Stewart, The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict

“He’d been about to make a joke, but he kept it to himself.”
― Trenton Lee Stewart, The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict

“No sooner had he thought this than he realized what was anchoring his happiness. It was purpose. He knew what he wanted to do.”
― Trenton Lee Stewart, The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict

“Nicholas looked down at his battered shoes and said nothing. He did indeed wish to be contrary—at the moment it was his most earnest wish of all—but somehow he found the presence of mind not to express this feeling. Mr. Collum was right about one thing, anyway. Adoption, in his case, was unlikely. Had he not been in orphanages all his life? He had not been a beautiful baby; he was not a beautiful boy. At the last orphanage, adoptions of any child had been rare, but Nicholas had paid close attention to the process. He had figured out the right things to say, the right way to act, when prospective parents visited. And one time he had actually come close—the young couple liked him; they even spoke about him with Mr. Cuckieu.”
― Trenton Lee Stewart, The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict

“I prefer to remain mysterious.”
― Trenton Lee Stewart, The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict

“He had known that emotions could change a person's perception of facts, but he had never imagined them capable of such slyness. It was important to keep an eye on them--to remain alert to their secret workings.”
― Trenton Lee Stewart, The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict

“poetic”
― Trenton Lee Stewart, The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict

“He started out foolish and lazy and ended up foolish and crooked.”
― Trenton Lee Stewart, The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict

“It fluttered Nicholas's collar and made his eyes water, blurring the stars. And then the sensation of tears seemed to trigger a sort of emotional reflex, for the next thing he knew, Nicholas was truly crying, which surprised him.”
― Trenton Lee Stewart, The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict

“You're a fresh one, Nick.' ~ John Cole”
― Trenton Lee Stewart, The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict

“What is wrong with this statement?”
― Trenton Lee Stewart, The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict

“In the meantime, there was nothing to do but exist and persist.”
― Trenton Lee Stewart, The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict

“felt increasingly bleary as a result of his late-night visits to the library. He could not help creeping downstairs to read each night, though. The temptation was too strong,”
― Trenton Lee Stewart, The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict

“It was a truly pretty morning, with blue skies and a cooling breeze, and the property behind the manor was just as pretty.”
― Trenton Lee Stewart, The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict