The Bad Beginning Good Versus Evil Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #7

"I guess you've found me out," Olaf said simply. "I suppose you're right: I'll go to prison, and you and the other orphans will go free. Now, why don't you run up to your room and wake your sisters? I'm sure they'll want to know all about your grand victory over my evil ways."

Klaus looked closely at Count Olaf, who was continuing to smile as if he had just told a clever joke. Why wasn't he threatening Klaus in anger, or tearing his hair out in frustration, or running to pack his clothes and escape? This wasn't happening at all the way Klaus had pictured it. (8.19-20)

Is there anything scarier than an evil person who isn't acting evil? Count Olaf should be furious, but he's totally calm—Klaus is smart to suspect there's something else sinister going on here.

Quote #8

"Well, now," Count Olaf said, sitting on a stump. "If you really want me to let her go, I will. But surely even a stupid brat like you might realize that if I let her go—or, more accurately, if I ask my comrade to let her go—poor little Sunny might not survive the fall down to the ground. That's a thirty-foot tower, which is a very long way for a very little person to fall, even when she's inside a cage. But if you insist—"

"No!" Klaus cried. "Don't!" (9.9-10)

Can this guy get any more evil? Is he seriously going to drop a baby to her death? Alas, Shmoopers, we think he will.

Quote #9

"But there is something illegal about dangling an infant out of a tower window," Justice Strauss said indignantly. "You, Count Olaf, will go to jail, and the three children will live with me."

"Arrest him! " a voice said from the audience, and other people took up the
cry.

"Send him to jail!"

"He's an evil man!"

"And give us our money back! It was a lousy play!" (13.47-51)

He is an evil man, but clearly this audience member has his priorities straight. The play was really terrible—go ahead add it to Count Olaf's list of crimes.