This is from The Austere Academy in The Series Of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. I do not own this book so I have no picture to share of my own personal copy, but perhaps you can spot the title in my old commonplace journal.
I will always be conflicted about how I feel about Lemony Snicket and his books (much as I will probably always be conflicted about Jane Austen, but please don’t come after me). There is no doubt he is a clever writer and makes many good points in his humorous, no-nonsense manner, which also somehow ends up being slightly nonsensical at the same time. haha
The Series Of Unfortunate Events is a very tragic tale about three siblings who are thrust into a series of unfortunate events after their parents perish in a great fire. They go from foster home to foster home, but in every place they are pursued by an evil Count Olaf who desires their fortune and always ruins everything for them. Sadly, that is pretty much the sum and total of the story. There is, however, some mystery involved and the plot thickens toward the end of the series.
Throughout every awful guardian and horrible catastrophe the children stick together, persevere and innovatively find ways to make it through. This is one thing I do truly love about the books; along with Lemony Snicket’s writing style. On the other hand, almost all the adults are dull at best and sinister at worst and there are some things like mild language(very little) and crude behavior that make me hesitate to go around singing its praises to everyone. Not to mention Lemony Snicket himself warns that it is a rather sad, dismal tale with an end that most certainly could have been more satisfactory. So I’ll leave it at this; I really like the series as a whole, but it fits in its own category, a category that’s best enjoyed by only certain people when they are in the proper mood.
Now to the quote! Assumptions come so easily that they have to be checked. Like an efficient bomb factory, I must confess I often find myself hearing something and immediately making an assumption, which most of the time needs then to be immediately dismantled (thankfully assumptions do not blow up if stopped in the early stages, unlike strawberry shortcake).
But once an assumption is completely made with no real evidence to back it up, it can easily become a ticking bomb ready at any moment to explode into something rather destructive. There are a multitude of stories involving characters who enter into a confusing tangle of troubles just because everyone is making wrong assumptions (I believe this might sum up a good deal of Pride And Prejudice…). Erroneous assumptions can be enjoyable to read about, but not so convenient to live out. So I do confess, I often quote these words to myself as I find myself assuming something with very little ground to do so.
Though, it must be said, assumptions are unavoidable and we need not throw them entirely out the window. If balance and care are taken and the assumption is carefully crafted and investigated on the basis of true evidence and logical reasoning the assumption can prove helpful just as bombs and strawberry shortcake can be very useful in many circumstances. We’ll all make assumptions but we should try to confirm those assumptions by searching out the facts.
There you have it. I’m sorry if this was a little confusing, but hopefully it was also slightly amusing and not at all annoying.