James M. Barrie
But the years came and went without bringing the careless boy; and when they met again Wendy was a married woman, and Peter was no more to her than a little dust in the box in which she had kept her toys.Collection: Boys
Next year he did not come for her. She waited in a new frock because the old one simply would not meet, but he never came. "Perhaps he is ill," Michael said. "You know he is never ill." Michael came close to her and whispered, with a shiver, "Perhaps there is no such person, Wendy!" and then Wendy would have cried if Michael had not been crying.Collection: Years
She liked his tears so much that she put out her beautiful finger and let them run over it. Her voice was so low that at first he could not make out what she said. Then he made it out. She was saying that she thought she could get well again if children believed in fairies.Collection: Beautiful
I have always found that the man whose second thoughts are good is worth watching.Collection: Men
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.Collection: Girl
I do loathe explanations.Collection: Explanation
If you shut your eyes and are a lucky one, you may see at times a shapeless pool of lovely pale colours suspended in the darkness; then if you squeeze your eyes tighter, the pool begins to take shape, and the colours become so vivid that with another squeeze they must go on fire.Collection: Eye
In England, justice is open to all - like the Ritz Hotel.Collection: Justice
For when you looked into my mother's eyes you knew, as if He had told you, why God sent her into the world - it was to open then minds of all who looked to beautiful thoughts. And that is the beginning and end of literature.Collection: Beautiful
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.Collection: Firsts
Love is not blind; it is an extra eye, which shows us what is most worthy of regard.Collection: Eye
I like well to be in the company of explorersCollection: Wells
astonishing splashes of colourCollection: Colour
Two is the beginning of the end.Collection: Two
You always know after you are two. Two is the beginning of the end.Collection: Two
I think one remains the same person throughout, merely passing, as it were, i these lapses of time from one room to another, but all in the same house.Collection: Thinking
The gates of heaven are so easily found when we are little, and they are always standing open to let children wander in.Collection: Children
Wendy, Wendy, when you are sleeping in your silly bed you might be flying about with me saying funny things to the stars.Collection: Stars
Never is an awfully long time.Collection: Long
You find a glimmer of happiness in this world, there's always someone who wants to destroy it.Collection: World
We should be slower to think that the man at his worst is the real man, and certain that the better we are ourselves the less likely is he to be at his worst in our company. Every time he talks away his own character before us he is signifying contempt for ours.Collection: Real
Our heroine knew that the mother would always leave the window open for her children to fly back by; so they stayed away for years and had a lovely time.Collection: Mother
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.Collection: Moving
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.Collection: Mother
I think it's perfectly lovely the way you talk about girls.Collection: Girl
I do believe in fairies, I do, I do.Collection: Believe
All the boys were grown up and done for by this time; so it is scarcely worth while saying anything more about them. You may see the twins and Nibs and Curly any day going to an office, each carrying a little bag and an umbrella. Michael is an engine driver. Slightly married a lady of title, and so he became a lord. You see that judge in a wig coming out at the iron door? That used to be Tootles. The bearded man who doesn't know any story to tell his children was once John.Collection: Children
The difference between him and the other boys at such a time was that they knew it was make-believe, while to hime make-believe and true were exactly the same thing. This sometimes troubled them, as when they had to make-believe that they had had their dinners.Collection: Believe
Some day,' said Smee, 'the clock will run down, and then he'll get you.' Hook wetted his dry lips, 'Aye,' he said, 'that's the fear that haunts me.Collection: Running
When ladies used to come to me in dreams, I said, 'Pretty mother, pretty mother.' But when at last she really came, I shot her.Collection: Mother
Children have the strangest adventures without being troubled by them. For instance, they may remember to mention, a week after the event happened, that when they were in the wood they had met their dead father and had a game with him.Collection: Children
She was a lovely lady, with a romantic mind and such a sweet mocking mouth. Her romantic mind was like the tiny boxes, one within the other, that come from the puzzling East, however many you discover there is always one more; and her sweet mocking mouth had one kiss on it that Wendy could never get, though there it was, perfectly conspicuous in the right-hand corner.Collection: Sweet
Fame is rot; daughters are the thing.Collection: Daughter
One's religion is whatever he is most interested in.Collection: Success
And so when Mrs. Darling went back to the night-nursery to see if her husband was asleep, all the beds were occupied. The children waited for her cry of joy, but it did not come. She saw them, but she did not believe they were there. You see, she saw them in their beds so often in her dreams that she thought this was just the dream hanging around her still.Collection: Dream
You won't forget me, Peter, will you, before spring-cleaning time comes? Of course Peter promised, and then he flew away. He took Mrs. Darling's kiss with him. The kiss that had been for no one else Peter took quite easily. Funny. But she seemd satisfied.Collection: Spring
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.Collection: Children
In time they could not even fly after their hats. Want of practice, they called it; but what it really meant was that they no longer believed.Collection: Practice
If 'Hamlet' had been written in these days it would probably have been called 'The Strange Affair at Elsinore.Collection: Strange
Peter: Oh, the cleverness of me. Wendy: Of course, I did nothing... Peter: You did a little. Wendy: Oh, the cleverness of you.Collection: Littles
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.Collection: Night
I wasn't crying about mothers," he said rather indignantly. "I was crying because I can't get my shadow to stick on. Besides, I wasn't crying.Collection: Mother
A loving wife is better than making 50 in cricket, or even 99, beyond that I will not go.Collection: Wife
Fairies don’t live long, but they are so little that a short time seems a good while to themCollection: Long
Life is a cup of tea; the more heartily we drink the sooner we reach the dregs.Collection: Tea
Peter was not with them for the moment, and they felt rather lonely up there by themselves. He could go so much faster than they that he would suddenly shoot out of sight, to have some adventure in which they had no share. He would come down laughing over something fearfully funny he had been saying to a star, but he had already forgotten what it was, or he would come up with mermaid scales still sticking to him, and yet not be able to to say for certain what had been happening. It was really rather irritating to children who had never seen a mermaid.Collection: Lonely
They hold their great balls in the open air, in what is called a fairy-ring. For weeks afterward you can see the ring on the grass. It is not there when they begin, but they make it by waltzing round and round. Sometimes you will find mushrooms inside the ring, and these are fairy chairs that the servants have forgotten to clear away. The chairs and the rings are the only tell-tale marks these little people leave behind them, and they would remove even these were they not so fond of dancing that they toe it till the very moment of the opening of the gates.Collection: Air
I sometimes think, Mary, that it is a mistake to have a dog for a nurse.Collection: Dog
Next moment he was standing erect on the rock again, with that smile on his face and a drum beating within him. It was saying, "To die will be an awfully big adventure.Collection: Adventure