240 Quotes by Frances Hodgson Burnett

The robin flew from his swinging spray of ivy on to the top of the wall and he opened his beak and sang a loud, lovely trill, merely to show off. Nothing in the world is quite as adorably lovely as a robin when he shows off – and they are nearly always doing it.

She did not care very much for other little girls, but if she had plenty of books she could console herself. She liked books more than anything else, and was, in fact, always inventing stories of beautiful things and telling them to herself.

Things happen to people by accident.

I wish I was friends with things,” he said at last, “but I’m not. I never had anything to be friends with, and I can’t bear people.

That’s what I look at some people for. I like to know about them. I think them over afterward.

When people had the cholera it seemed that they remembered nothing but themselves.

When new beautiful thoughts began to push out the old hideous ones, life began to come back to him, his blood ran healthily through his veins and strength poured into him like a flood.

Even if they dress in rags, even if they aren’t pretty, or smart, or young. They’re still princesses.

When a man is very good and knows a great deal, he is elected president.