J. M. Barrie

“The best of our fiction is by novelists who allow that it is as good as they can give, and the worst by novelists who maintain that they could do much better if only the public would let them.”

“One's religion is whatever he is most interested in, and yours is Success.”

“Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.”

“I do loathe explanations.”

“His lordship may compel us to be equal upstairs, but there will never be equality in the servants' hall.”

“I'm not young enough to know everything.”

“Oh, it's — it's a sort of bloom on a woman. If you have it, you don't need to have anything else; and if you don't have it, it doesn't much matter what else you have. Some women, the few, have charm for all; and most have charm for one. But some have charm for none.”

“There are few more impressive sights in the world than a Scotsman on the make.”

“The tragedy of a man who has found himself out.”

“The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another; and his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he vowed to make it.”

“The gladness of living was in your step, your voice was melody, and he was wondering what love might be. You were the daughter of a summer night, born where all the birds are free, and the moon christened you with her soft light to dazzle the eyes of man. Not our little minister alone was stricken by you into his second childhood. To look upon you was to rejoice that so fair a thing could be; to think of you is still to be young.”

“Your heart is as fresh as your face; and that is well. The useless men are those who never change with the years. Many views that I held to in my youth and long afterwards are a pain to me now, and I am carrying away from Thrums memories of errors into which I fell at every stage of my ministry. When you are older you will know that life is a long lesson in humility.”

“Let no one who loves be called altogether unhappy. Even love unreturned has its rainbow, and Babbie knew that Gavin loved her. Yet she stood in woe among the stiff berry bushes, as one who stretches forth her hands to Love and sees him looking for her, and knows she must shrink from the arms she would lie in, and only call to him in a voice he cannot hear. This is not a love that is always bitter. It grows sweet with age.”

“If the young leddy was so careless o' insulting other folks' ancestors, it proves she has nane o' her ain; for them that has china plates themsel's is the maist careful no to break the china plates of others.”

“We never understand how little we need in this world until we know the loss of it.”

“My mother's favourite paraphrase is one known in our house as David's because it was the last he learned to repeat. It was also the last thing she read — I heard her voice gain strength as she read it, I saw her timid face take courage, but when came my evil day, then at the dawning, alas for me, I was afraid.”

“I had been gone a fortnight when the telegram was put into my hands. I had got a letter from my sister, a few hours before, saying that all was well at home. The telegram said in five words that she had died suddenly the previous night. There was no mention of my mother, and I was three days' journey from home. The news I got on reaching London was this: my mother did not understand that her daughter was dead, and they were waiting for me to tell her.”

“Shall we make a new rule of life from tonight: always to try to be a little kinder than is necessary?”

“Every living thing was shunning him. Poor little Peter Pan, he sat down and cried, and even then he did not know that, for a bird, he was sitting on his wrong part. It is a blessing that he did not know, for otherwise he would have lost faith in his power to fly, and the moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease forever to be able to do it. The reason birds can fly and we can't is simply that they have perfect faith, for to have faith is to have wings.”

“It is frightfully difficult to know much about the fairies, and almost the only thing known for certain is that there are fairies wherever there are children.”

“When you were a bird you knew the fairies pretty well, and you remember a good deal about them in your babyhood, which it is a great pity you can't write down, for gradually you forget, and I have heard of children who declared that they had never once seen a fairy. Very likely if they said this in the Kensington Gardens, they were standing looking at a fairy all the time. The reason they were cheated was that she pretended to be something else. This is one of their best tricks.”

“Wise children always choose a mother who was a shocking flirt in her maiden days, and so had several offers before she accepted their fortunate papa.”

“"In twenty years," I said, smiling at her tears, "a man grows humble, Mary. I have stored within me a great fund of affection, with nobody to give it to, and I swear to you, on the word of a soldier, that if there is one of those ladies who can be got to care for me I shall be very proud." Despite her semblance of delight I knew that she was wondering at me, and I wondered at myself, but it was true.”

“Wendy, one girl is worth more than twenty boys.”

“Second to the right and then straight on till morning.”

“Do you know why swallows build in the eaves of houses? It is to listen to the stories.”

“I'll teach you to jump on the wind's back and then away we go.”

“You just think lovely wonderful thoughts and they lift you up in the air.”

“To die will be an awfully big adventure.”

“Do you believe in fairies?...If you believe, clap your hands!”

“I just want always to be a little boy and have fun.”

“Split my infinitives, but 'tis my hour of triumph!”

“I'm youth, I'm joy, I'm a little bird that has broken out of the egg.”

“Proud and insolent youth, prepare to meet thy doom.”

“Dark and sinister man, have at thee.”

“If he could get the hang of the thing his cry might become To live would be an awfully big adventure! but he can never quite the hang of it...”

“You see, Wendy, when the first baby laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies.”

“There ought to be one fairy for every boy and girl." "No. You see children know such a lot now, they soon don't believe in fairies, and every time a child says, 'I don't believe in fairies,' there is a fairy somewhere that falls down dead.”

“Would you like an adventure now," he said casually to John, "or would you like to have your tea first?”

“She said out of pity for him, "I shall give you a kiss if you like," but though he once knew, he had long forgotten what kisses are, and he replied, "Thank you," and held out his hand, thinking she had offered to put something into it. This was a great shock to her, but she felt she could not explain without shaming him, so with charming delicacy she gave Peter a thimble which happened to be in her pocket, and pretended that it was a kiss.”

“Peter flung out his arms. There were no children there, and it was night time; but he addressed all who might be dreaming of the Neverland, and who were therefore nearer to him than you think: boys and girls in their nighties, and naked papooses in their baskets hung from trees. "Do you believe?" he cried.”

“When a new baby laughs for the first time a new fairy is born, and as there are always new babies there are always new fairies. They live in nests on the tops of trees; and the mauve ones are boys and the white ones are girls, and the blue ones are just little sillies who are not sure what they are.”

“Michael believed longer than the other boys, though they jeered at him; so he was with Wendy when Peter came for her at the end of the first year. She flew away with Peter in the frock she had woven from leaves and berries in the Neverland, and her one fear was that he might notice how short it had become; but he never noticed, he had so much to say about himself. She had looked forward to thrilling talks with him about old times, but new adventures had crowded the old ones from his mind.”

“Why can't you fly now, mother?" "Because they are no longer gay and innocent and heartless. It is only the gay and innocent and heartless who can fly.”

“The last thing he ever said to me was, "Just always be waiting for me, and then some night you will hear me crowing."”

“I am old, Peter. I am ever so much more than twenty. I grew up long ago." "I couldn't help it. I am a married woman, Peter.”