James M. Barrie Quotes

Life is a cup of tea; the more heartily we drink the sooner we reach the dregs.

That is ever the way. Tis all jealousy to the bride and good wishes to the corpse.

He was a poet; and they are never exactly grown-up.

It was dreadful the way all the three were looking at him, just as if they did not admire him.

Do you believe in fairies? Say quick that you believe. If you believe, clap your hands!

All you need is trust and a little bit of pixie dust!

What is genius? It is the power to be a boy again at will.

The praise that comes from love does not make us vain, but more humble.

Would you like an adventure now, or would you like to have your tea first?

Stars are beautiful, but they may not take part in anything, they must just look on forever.

Love is not blind; it is an extra eye, which shows us what is most worthy of regard.

Peter invented, with Wendy's help, a new game that fascinated him enormously, until he suddenly had no more interest in it, which, as you have been told, was what always happened with his games. It consisted in pretending not to have adventures.

She asked where he lived. Second to the right,' said Peter, 'and then straight on till morning.

On these magic shores children at play are for ever beaching their coracles. We too have been there; we can still hear the sound of the surf, though we shall land no more.

Facts were never pleasing to him. He acquired them with reluctance and got rid of them with relief. He was never on terms with them until he had stood them on their heads.

Girls are much too clever to fall out of their prams

But the years came and went without bringing the careless boy; and when they met again Wendy was a married woman, and Peter was no more to her than a little dust in the box in which she had kept her toys.

If growing up means it would be beneath my dignity to climb a tree, I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up! Not me!

I don't want to go to school and learn solemn things.

He looked at her uncomfortably; blinking, you know, like one not sure whether he was awake or asleep.

I have always found that the man whose second thoughts are good is worth watching.

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

Wendy: Sir, you are both ungallant and deficient! Peter: How am I deficient? Wendy: You're just a boy.

Nobody really wants us. So let us watch and say jaggy things, in the hope that some of them will hurt.

Fairies have to be one thing or the other, because being so small they unfortunately have room for one feeling only at a time.

The Elizabethan age might be better named the beginning of the smoking era.

The reason birds can fly and we can't is simply that they have perfect faith, for to have faith is to have wings.

All the boys were grown up and done for by this time; so it is scarcely worth while saying anything more about them. You may see the twins and Nibs and Curly any day going to an office, each carrying a little bag and an umbrella. Michael is an engine driver. Slightly married a lady of title, and so he became a lord. You see that judge in a wig coming out at the iron door? That used to be Tootles. The bearded man who doesn't know any story to tell his children was once John.

They knew in what they called their hearts that one can get on quite well without a mother, and that it is only the mothers who think you can't.

Fame is rot; daughters are the thing.

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

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.

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.

Have you noticed that many jewels make women either incredibly fat or incredibly thin?

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

All the world is made of faith, and trust, and pixie dust.

They were going round and round the island, but they did not meet because all were going at the same rate.

When the first baby laughed for the first time, the laugh broke into a thousand pieces and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies.

Oh, you mysterious girls, when you are fifty-two we shall find you out; you must come into the open then. If the mouth has fallen sourly yours the blame: all the meanness your youth concealed have been gathering in your face. But the pretty thoughts and sweet ways and dear, forgotten kindnesses linger there also, to bloom in your twilight like evening primroses.

Off we skip like the most heartless things in the world, which is what children are, but so attractive; and we have an entirely selfish time, and then when we have need of special attention we nobly return for it, confident that we shall be rewarded instead of smacked.

If you cannot teach me to fly, teach me to sing.

I do believe in fairies, I do, I do.

One girl is worth more use than 20 boys.

If he thought at all, but I don't believe he ever thought, it was that he and his shadow, when brought near each other, would join like drops of water.

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

Never ascribe to an opponent motives meaner than your own.

When ladies used to come to me in dreams, I said, 'Pretty mother, pretty mother.' But when at last she really came, I shot her.

When she expressed a doubtful hope that Tinker Bell would be glad to see her, he said, ‘Who is Tinker Bell?’ ‘O Peter,’ she said, shocked; but even when she explained he could not remember. ‘There are such a lot of them,’ he said. ‘I expect she is no more.’ I expect he was right, for fairies don’t live long, but they are so little that a short time seems a good while to them.