James M. Barrie Quotes

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.

Mr. Darling used to boast to Wendy that her mother not only loved him but respected him. He was one of those deep ones who know about stocks and shares. Of course no one really knows, but he quite seemed to know, and he often said stocks were up and shares were down in a way that would have made any woman respect him.

I sometimes think, Mary, that it is a mistake to have a dog for a nurse.

It was then that Hook bit him. Not the pain of this but its unfairness was what dazed Peter. It made him quite helpless. He could only stare, horrified. Every child is affected thus the first time he is treated unfairly. All he thinks he has a right to when he comes to you to be yours is fairness. After you have been unfair to him he will love you again, but he will never afterwards be quite the same boy. No one ever gets over the first unfairness; no one except Peter.

We have a right to know the truth; no right to ask anything else from God, but the right to know that.

Oh, God, if I were sure I were to die tonight I would repent at once. It is the commonest prayer in all languages.

Second to the right, and straight on till morning.' That, Peter had told Wendy, was the way to the Neverland; but even birds, carrying maps and consulting them at windy corners, could not have sighted it with these instructions. Peter, you see, just said anything that came into his head.

After you have been unfair to him he will love you again, but he will never afterwards be quite the same boy. No one ever gets over the first unfairness; no one except Peter.

Most disquieting reflection of all, was it not bad form to think about good form?

You were hidden behind walls of ice; no man had passed them; I broke them down and love leapt to love, and you lie here, my beautiful, love in the arms of its lover.

Ambition it is the last infirmity of noble minds.

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.

Has it ever struck you that trout bite best on the Sabbath? God's critters tempting decent men.

She also said she would give him a kiss if he liked, but Peter did not know what she meant, and he held out his hand expectantly.

The best place a person can die, is where they die for others.

Them that has china plates themsel's is the maist careful not to break the china plates of others

She adored all beautiful things in their every curve and fragrance, so that they became part of her. Day by day, she gathered beauty; had she had no heart (she who was the bosom of womanhood) her thoughts would still have been as lilies, because the good is the beautiful.

A moment after the fairy's entrance the window was blown open by the breathing of the little stars, and Peter dropped in.

Men's second childhood begins when a woman gets a hold of him.

I suppose it's like the ticking crocodile, isn't it? Time is chasing after all of us.

...and thus it will go on, so long as children are gay and innocent and heartless.

There are, I dare say, many lovers who would never have been drawn to each other had they met for the first time, as, say, they met the second time.

Two is the beginning of the end.

They took it for granted that if they went he would go also, but really they scarcely cared. Thus children are ever so ready, when novelty knocks, to desert their dearest ones.

A woman can be anything the man who loves her would have her be.

Forget not your past, for in the future it may help you grow

I don’t want to go to school and learn solemn things. I don’t want to be a man.

Wendy, Wendy, when you are sleeping in your silly bed you might be flying about with me saying funny things to the stars.

Forever is a very long time Peter

Of course the Neverlands vary a good deal. John's, for instance, had a lagoon with flamingos flying over it at which John was shooting, while Michael, who was very small, had a flamingo with lagoons flying over it. John lived in a boat turned upside down on the sands, Michael in a wigwam, Wendy in a house of leaves deftly sewn together. John had no friends, Michael had friends at night, Wendy had a pet wolf forsaken by its parents.

All of this has happened before, and it will all happen again.

‎"She was not a little girl heart-broken about him; she was a grown woman smiling at it all, but they were wet smiles.

You find a glimmer of happiness in this world, there's always someone who wants to destroy it.

Wendy," Peter Pan continued in a voice that no woman has ever yet been able to resist, "Wendy, one girl is more use than twenty boys.

A safe but sometimes chilly way of recalling the past is to force open a crammed drawer. If you are searching for anything in particular you don't find it, but something falls out at the back that is often more interesting.

Years rolled on again, and Wendy had a daughter. This ought not to be written in ink but in a golden splash.

A house is never still in darkness to those who listen intently; there is a whispering in distant chambers, an unearthly hand presses the snib of the window, the latch rises. Ghosts were created when the first man awoke in the night.

He was a little boy, and she was grown up. She huddled by the fire not daring to move, helpless and guilty, a big woman.

I bowl so slowly that if I don't like a ball I can run after it and bring it back

You see, dear, it is not true that woman was made from man's rib; she was made from his funny bone.

Those who are prepared to die are most prepared to live.

I've sometimes thought . . . that the difference between us and the English is that the Scotch are hard in all other respects but soft with women, and the English are hard with women but soft in all other respects.

The praise that comes of love does not make us vain, but humble rather. Knowing what we are, the pride that shines in our mother's eyes as she looks at us is about the most pathetic thing a man has to face, but he would be a devil altogether if it did not burn some of the sin out of him.

Fairies don’t live long, but they are so little that a short time seems a good while to them

Young boys should never be sent to bed. They always wake up a day older.

One's religion is whatever he is most interested in.

And if he forgets them so quickly," Wendy argued, "how can we expect that he will go on remembering us?

I am not young enough to know everything.