“But I'm not to be caught with such poor bait! I'm a big fish, I am.”

“Happiness always looks small while you hold it in your hands, but let it go, and you learn at once how big and precious it is.”

“The poor are always rich in children, and in the dirt and ditches of this street there are groups of them from morning to night, hungry, naked and dirty. Children are the living flowers of the earth, but these had the appearance of flowers that have faded prematurely, because they grew in ground where there was no healthy nourishment.”

“I do not care to see men better off – but better!”

“What I'd like is to meet a man I could take off my hat to and say: "Thank you for having got born, and the longer you live the better.”

“You must write for children the same way you write for adults, only better.”

“Lies are the religion of slaves and masters. Truth is the god of the free man.”