The Bad Beginning Cunning and Cleverness Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #1

Violet had a real knack for inventing and building strange devices, so her brain was often filled with images of pulleys, levers, and gears, and she never wanted to be distracted by something as trivial as her hair. (1.3)

Violet is quite the clever little inventor here—and you better believe this is going to come in handy later.

Quote #2

Klaus Baudelaire, the middle child, and the only boy, liked to examine creatures in tide-pools. Klaus was a little older than twelve and wore glasses, which made him look intelligent. He was intelligent. The Baudelaire parents had an enormous library in their mansion, a room filled with thousands of books on nearly every subject. Being only twelve, Klaus of course had not read all of the books in the Baudelaire library, but he had read a great many of them and had retained a lot of the information from his readings. (1.4)

And who works better with an inventor than a researcher? Klaus is brilliant because he takes in a lot of information and remembers it easily. You are going to need those skills later, Klaus, so hold on tight to them.

Quote #3

"You seem like very intelligent people," Justice Strauss said. "I daresay you would have thought of something." (4.3)

A nice compliment from Justice Strauss. Yes, these clever kids probably would have thought of a way to fulfill Count Olaf's ridiculous demands, but luckily, they get some help from their friend next door.