378 Quotes by James M. Barrie

Peter became very clever at helping the birds to build their nests; soon he could build better than a wood-pigeon, and nearly as well as a blackbird, though never did he satisfy the finches, and he made nice little water-troughs near the nests and dug up worms for the young ones with his fingers. He also became very learned in bird-lore, and knew an east wind from a west wind by its smell, and he could see the grass growing and hear the insects walking about inside the tree-trunks.

For, to a child, the oddest of things, and the most richly coloured picture-book, is that his mother was once a child also.

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.

Whenever a child says “I don’t believe in fairies” there’s a little fairy somewhere that falls right down dead.

Life is like a cup of coffee: The more avidly you drink of it, the sooner you reach the dregs.

Never, never!” she answered with conviction, “he would have been afraid.” “What is afraid?” asked Peter longingly. He thought it must be some splendid thing. “I do wish you would teach me how to be afraid, Maimie,” he said.

Always be a little kinder than necessary.

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.