J. M. Barrie Quotes

142 Sourced Quotes

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

J. M. Barrie
As you look at Wendy, you may see her hair becoming white, and her figure little again, for all this happened long ago. Jane is now a common grown-up, with a daughter called Margaret; and every spring cleaning time, except when he forgets, Peter comes for Margaret and takes her to the Neverland, where she tells him stories about himself, to which he listens eagerly. When Margaret grows up she will have a daughter, who is to be Peter's mother in turn; and thus it will go on, so long as children are gay and innocent and heartless.

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

J. M. Barrie
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.

J. M. Barrie
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.

J. M. Barrie
Don't have a mother,' he said. Not only had he no mother, but he had not the slightest desire to have one. He thought them very over-rated persons.

J. M. Barrie
Will they reach the nursery in time? If so, how delightful for them, and we shall all breathe a sigh of relief, but there will be no story. On the other hand, if they are not in time, I solemnly promise that it will all come right in the end.

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

J. M. Barrie
Do you know," Peter asked, "why swallows build in the eaves of houses? It is to listen to the stories.

J. M. Barrie
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
There could not have been a lovelier sight; but there was none to see it except a little boy who was staring in at the window. He had ecstasies innumerable that other children can never know; but he was looking through the window at the one joy from which he must be for ever barred.

J. M. Barrie
You need not be sorry for her. She was one of the kind that likes to grow up. In the end she grew up of her own free will a day quicker than the other girls.

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

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

J. M. Barrie
To the British writer H.G. Wells:
It is all very well to be able to write books, but can you wag your ears?

J. M. Barrie
Take care, lest an adventure is now offered you, which, if accepted, will plunge you in deepest woe.

J. M. Barrie
"Why can't you fly now, mother?"
"Because I am grown up, dearest. When people grow up they forget the way."
"Why do they forget the way?"
"Because they are no longer gay and innocent and heartless. It is only the gay and innocent and heartless who can fly."

J. M. Barrie
On a certain author who was tried for murdering his publisher:
When the author was on the scaffold he said goodbye to the minister and to the reporters, and then he saw some publishers sitting in the front row below, and to them he did not say goodbye. He said instead, 'I'll see you later.'

J. M. Barrie
The door', replied Maimie, 'will always, always be open, and mother will always be waiting at it for me.

J. M. Barrie
Hogmanay, like all festivals, being but a bank from which we can only draw what we put in.

J. M. Barrie
"I am old, Peter. I am ever so much more than twenty. I grew up long ago."
"You promised not to!"
"I couldn't help it. I am a married woman, Peter."

J. M. Barrie
Can anything harm us, mother, after the night-lights are lit?" Nothing, precious," she said; "they are the eyes a mother leaves behind her to guard her children.

J. M. Barrie
He was so full of wrath against grown-ups, who as usual, were spoiling everything, that as soon as he got inside his tree he breathed intentionally quick short breaths at the rate of about five to a second. He did this because there is a saying in the Neverland, that everytime you breathe, a grown-up dies; and Peter was killing them of vindictively as fast as possible.

J. M. Barrie
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