Flowers for Algernon

"Maybe this is God's way of showing me what I could never have."

"The tests show what I've always suspected about myself."

"I loved her, but my love was based on ignorance."

"Learning has made me understand my own limitations."

"I want people to remember me as I am now, not as I was."

"The future frightens me more than my past ever did."

"I understand now that intelligence is not a measure of worth."

"Algernon was my friend. He deserved better than this."

"I've learned more in these few months than in my entire life."

"The intelligence is a burden I never asked for."

"They wanted to help me, but now I'm afraid of what they've made me into."

"I've started to see the pattern in my own deterioration."

"The mice are getting smarter every day."

"I don't understand why people are so cruel."

"Miss Kinnian is a nice woman. She's good to me."

"I want to know everything. I want to learn everything that there is to know."

"The operation was a success. They say it's already starting to work."

"I was born in New York City. I don't remember it."

"Now I understand what they've been laughing at."

"I don't want to go back to being the way I was."

"The effect has worn off. It always wears off."

"Maybe I'm not as intelligent as I think I am."

"I'm not sure what the thing is that separates me from the rest of them. It has something to do with the fact that I have to work harder."

"I've learned that the measure of a man is not his intelligence alone."

"The tragedy is not in becoming less, but in having been more and losing it."

"We are all like Algernon—trapped in mazes of our own making."

"The man I was is not completely gone. He's still here, somewhere inside."

"Now I understand what intelligence really is. It's the ability to see what others cannot."

"I want to be smart real bad."

"I'm not really changing into someone else. I'm becoming more myself."