Frances Hodgson Burnett Quotes

72 Sourced Quotes

To speak robin to a robin is like speaking French to a Frenchman

Frances Hodgson Burnett
I am writing in the garden. To write as one should of a garden one must write not outside it or merely somewhere near it, but in the garden.

Frances Hodgson Burnett
At first people refuse to believe that a strange new thing can be done, then they begin to hope it can be done, then they see it can be done — then it is done and all the world wonders why it was not done centuries ago.

Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Magic in this garden has made me stand up and know I am going to live to be a man.

Frances Hodgson Burnett
As long as one has a garden, one has a future; and as long as one has a future one is alive.

Frances Hodgson Burnett
Children's as good as 'rithmetic to set you findin' out things.

Frances Hodgson Burnett
And they both began to laugh over nothing as children will when they are happy together. And they laughed so that in the end they were making as much noise as if they had been two ordinary healthy natural ten-year-old creatures—instead of a hard, little, unloving girl and a sickly boy who believed that he was going to die.

Frances Hodgson Burnett
If you fill your mind with a beautiful thought, there will be no room in it for an ugly one. - King Amor

Frances Hodgson Burnett
There's naught as nice as th' smell o' good clean earth, except th' smell o' fresh growin' things when th' rain falls on 'em.

Frances Hodgson Burnett
Is the spring coming?" he said. "What is it like?"... "It is the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sunshine...

Frances Hodgson Burnett
The truth is that when one is still a child-or even if one is grown up- and has been well fed, and has slept long and softly and warm; when one has gone to sleep in the midst of a fairy story, and has wakened to find it real, one cannot be unhappy or even look as if one were; and one could not, if one tried, keep a glow of joy out of one's eyes.

Frances Hodgson Burnett
Imagine, if you can, what the rest of the evening was like. How they crouched by the fire which blazed and leaped and made much of itself in the little grate. How they removed the covers of the dishes, and found rich, hot savory soup, which was a meal in itself, and sandwiches and toast and muffins enough for both of them.

Frances Hodgson Burnett
One marvel of a day he had walked so far that when he returned the moon was high and full and all the world was purple shadow and silver.

Frances Hodgson Burnett
It is astonishing how short a time it takes for very wonderful things to happen.

Frances Hodgson Burnett
My mother always says people should be able to take care of themselves, even if they're rich and important.

Frances Hodgson Burnett
There's nothing so strong as rage, except what makes you hold it in — that's stronger. It's a good thing not to answer your enemies.

Frances Hodgson Burnett
Never thee stop believin' in th' Big Good Thing an' knowin' th' world's full of it - and call it what tha' likes. Tha' wert singin' to it when I come into t' garden.

Frances Hodgson Burnett
That's what I look at some people for. I like to know about them. I think them over afterward.

Frances Hodgson Burnett
Nothing in the world is quite as adorably lovely as a robin when he shows off and they are nearly always doing it.

Frances Hodgson Burnett
But I suppose there might be good in things, even if we don't see it.

Frances Hodgson Burnett
She did not care very much for other little girls, but if she had plenty of books she could console herself.

Frances Hodgson Burnett
It's so different to be a sparrow. But nobody asked this rat if he wanted to be a rat when he was made. Nobody said, 'Wouldn't you rather be a sparrow?

Frances Hodgson Burnett
I pretend I am a princess, so that I can try and behave like one.

Frances Hodgson Burnett
She wished she could talk as he did. His speech was so quick and easy. It sounded as if he liked her and was not the least afraid she would not like him, though he was only a common moor boy, in patched clothes and with a funny face and a rough, rusty-red head.

Frances Hodgson Burnett
And her mother had been a great beauty who cared only to go to parties and amuse herself with gay parties.

Frances Hodgson Burnett
You can lose a friend in springtime easier than any other season if you're too curious.

Frances Hodgson Burnett
Of course there must be lots of Magic in the world," he said wisely one day, "but people don't know what it is like or how to make it. Perhaps the beginning is just to say nice things are going to happen until you make them happen. I am going to try and experiment.

Frances Hodgson Burnett
Their eyes met with a singular directness of gaze. Between them a spark passed which was not afterwards to be extinguished, though neither of them knew the moment of its kindling...

Frances Hodgson Burnett
What you have to do with your mind, when your body is miserable, is to make it think of something else.

Frances Hodgson Burnett
If nature has made you for a giver, your hands are born open, and so is your heart; and though there may be times when your hands are empty, your heart is always full, and you can give things out of that—warm things, kind things, sweet things—help and comfort and laughter—and sometimes gay, kind laughter is the best help of all.

Frances Hodgson Burnett