Misquoted, actually...

Then he said, in a goloss of great suffering, but still rocking

away: "What gets into you all?  We study the problem and
 

we've been studying it for damn well near a century, yes, but
 

we get no further with our studies.  You've got a good home
 

here, good loving parents, you've got not too bad of a brain.
 

Is it some devil that crawls inside you?"
 

"Nobody's got anything on me, sir," I said.  "I've been out of
 

the rookers of the millicents for a long time now."
 

"That's just what worries me," sighed P. R. Deltoid.  "A bit
 

too long of a time to be healthy.  You're about due now by my
 

reckoning.  That's why I'm warning you, little Alex, to keep
 

your handsome young proboscis out of the dirt, yes.  Do I
 

make myself clear?"
 

"As an unmuddied lake, sir," I said.  "Clear as an azure sky of
 

deepest summer.  You can rely on me, sir."  And I gave him a
 

nice zooby smile.