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J. M. Barrie

56 quotes

“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.”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) first seen 1891 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Contemporary Review (1891)
“Never ascribe to an opponent motives meaner than your own.”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) first seen 1922 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Rectorial Address, St. Andrew's (3 May 1922)
“One's religion is whatever he is most interested in, and yours is Success.”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) first seen 1910 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Twelve-Pound Look (1910)
“Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) first seen 1917 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Christ's Second Coming Fulfilled (1917) by Marion Morris, p. 144
“I do loathe explanations.”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) first seen 1890 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: My Lady Nicotine (1890) ch. 16
“I'm not young enough to know everything.”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) first seen 1903 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: J. M. Barrie The Admirable Crichton, Act I (1903)
Also quoted by: Oscar Wilde (misattributed)
“His lordship may compel us to be equal upstairs, but there will never be equality in the servants' hall.”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are few more impressive sights in the world than a Scotsman on the make.”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The tragedy of a man who has found himself out.”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“They didna speak, but they just gave one another a look, and I saw the love-light in their een." No more is remembered of these two, no being now living ever saw them, but the poetry that was in the soul of a battered weaver makes them human to us for ever. It is of another minister I am to tell, but only to those who know that light when they see it. I am not bidding good-bye to many readers, for though it is true that some men, of whom Lord Rintoul was one, live to an old age without knowing love, few of us can have met them, and of women so incomplete I never heard.”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ghosts were created when the first man woke in the night.”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We never understand how little we need in this world until we know the loss of it.”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 — Art thou afraid his power shall fail When comes thy evil day? And can an all-creating arm Grow weary or decay? 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.”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Sometimes the little boy who calls me father brings me an invitation from his mother: "I shall be so pleased if you will come and see me," and I always reply in some such words as these: "Dear madam, I decline." And if David asks why I decline, I explain that it is because I have no desire to meet the woman. "Come this time, father," he urged lately, "for it is her birthday, and she is twenty-six," which is so great an age to David, that I think he fears she cannot last much longer.”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Shall we make a new rule of life from tonight: always to try to be a little kinder than is necessary?”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Wendy, one girl is worth more than twenty boys.”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Second to the right and then straight on till morning.”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Do you know why swallows build in the eaves of houses? It is to listen to the stories.”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I'll teach you to jump on the wind's back and then away we go.”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You just think lovely wonderful thoughts and they lift you up in the air.”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To die will be an awfully big adventure.”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Do you believe in fairies?...If you believe, clap your hands!”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I just want always to be a little boy and have fun.”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Split my infinitives, but 'tis my hour of triumph!”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I'm youth, I'm joy, I'm a little bird that has broken out of the egg.”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Proud and insolent youth, prepare to meet thy doom.”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Dark and sinister man, have at thee.”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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...”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All children, except one, grow up. They soon know that they will grow up, and the way Wendy knew was this. One day when she was two years old she was playing in a garden, and she plucked another flower and ran with it to her mother. I suppose she must have looked rather delightful, for Mrs. Darling put her hand to her heart and cried, "Oh, why can't you remain like this for ever!" This was all that passed between them on the subject, but henceforth Wendy knew that she must grow up. You always know after you are two. Two is the beginning of the end.”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Occasionally in her travels through her children's minds Mrs. Darling found things she could not understand, and of these quite the most perplexing was the word Peter. She knew of no Peter, and yet he was here and there in John and Michael's minds, while Wendy's began to be scrawled all over with him. The name stood out in bolder letters than any of the other words, and as Mrs. Darling gazed she felt that it had an oddly cocky appearance. "Yes, he is rather cocky," Wendy admitted with regret. Her mother had been questioning her.”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There ought to be one fairy for every boy and girl." "Ought to be? Isn't there?" "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.”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Would you like an adventure now," he said casually to John, "or would you like to have your tea first?”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you believe," he shouted to them, "clap your hands; don't let Tink die." Many clapped. Some didn't. A few beasts hissed. The clapping stopped suddenly; as if countless mothers had rushed to their nurseries to see what on earth was happening; but already Tink was saved. First her voice grew strong, then she popped out of bed, then she was flashing through the room more merry and impudent than ever. She never thought of thanking those who believed, but she would have like to get at the ones who had hissed.”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source