James M. Barrie famous quotes

The secret of happiness is not in doing what one likes, but in liking what one does.
-- James M. Barrie

#Inspirational #Happiness #Success

Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.
-- James M. Barrie

#Happiness #Thank You #Wisdom

Nothing is really work unless you would rather be doing something else.
-- James M. Barrie

#Motivational #Work

Life is a long lesson in humility.
-- James M. Barrie

#Life #Humility #Long

If you cannot teach me to fly, teach me to sing.
-- James M. Barrie

#Music #Teach

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.
-- James M. Barrie

#Real #Character #Humility

The most useless are those who never change through the years.
-- James M. Barrie

#Motivational #Change #Years

I'm youth, I'm joy, I'm a little bird that has broken out of the egg.
-- James M. Barrie

#Inspirational #Eggs #Broken

Never ascribe to an opponent motives meaner than your own.
-- James M. Barrie

#Revenge #Opponents #Conflict

The best place a person can die, is where they die for others.
-- James M. Barrie

#Death #Dying #Persons

There are few more impressive sights in the world than a Scotsman on the make.
-- James M. Barrie

#Sight #World #Scottish

As soon as you can say what you think and not what some other person has thought for you, you are on the way to being a remarkable man.
-- James M. Barrie

#Men #Thinking #Being Different

For several days after my first book was published, I carried it about in my pocket and took surreptitious peeps at it to make sure the ink had not faded.
-- James M. Barrie

#Book #Pockets #Ink

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

#House #Stories #Peter

Let no one who loves be unhappy, even love unreturned has its rainbow.
-- James M. Barrie

#Love #Happiness #Broken Heart

God gave us memory so that we might have roses in December.
-- James M. Barrie

#Nature #Memories #Rose

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

#Believe #Hands #Fairy

The praise that comes from love does not make us vain, but more humble.
-- James M. Barrie

#Love #Humble #Doe

Shall we make a new rule of life from tonight: always to try to be a little kinder than is necessary?
-- James M. Barrie

#Inspirational #Life #Motivational

A woman can be anything the man who loves her would have her be.
-- James M. Barrie

#Women #Men

Dreams do come true, if we only wish hard enough, You can have anything in life if you will sacrifice everything else for it.
-- James M. Barrie

#Life #Dream #Sacrifice

We are all failures - at least the best of us are.
-- James M. Barrie

#Inspirational #Failure

His lordship may compel us to be equal upstairs, but there will never be equality in the servants' hall.
-- James M. Barrie

#Equality #May #Upstairs

Ambition it is the last infirmity of noble minds.
-- James M. Barrie

#Work #Ambition #Mind

When the first baby laughed for the first time, the laugh broke into a thousand pieces and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies.
-- James M. Barrie

#Birthday #Baby #Laughing

Every time you say you don't believe in fairies, a fairy dies.
-- James M. Barrie

#Believe #Fairy

Forever is a very long time Peter
-- James M. Barrie

#Long #Forever #Peter

Fame is rot; daughters are the thing.
-- James M. Barrie

#Daughter #Fame

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.
-- James M. Barrie

#Believe #Boys #Differences

It may have been quixotic, but it was magnificent.
-- James M. Barrie

#May #Quixotic #Magnificent

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.
-- James M. Barrie

#Mother #Dream #Lasts

One's religion is whatever he is most interested in.
-- James M. Barrie

#Success #Religion

I am not young enough to know everything.
-- James M. Barrie

#Knowledge #Enough #Young

You must have been warned against letting the golden hours slip by; but some of them are golden only because we let them slip by.
-- James M. Barrie

#Time #Golden #Hours

You just think lovely wonderful thoughts," Peter explained, "and they lift you up in the air.
-- James M. Barrie

#Thinking #Air #Lovely

Would you like an adventure now, or would like to have your tea first?
-- James M. Barrie

#Adventure #Tea #Firsts

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.
-- James M. Barrie

#Boys #Years #Dust

Mrs. Darling: There are many different kinds of bravery. There's the bravery of thinking of others before one's self. Now, your father has never brandished a sword nor fired a pistol, thank heavens. But he has made many sacrifices for his family, and put away many dreams. Michael: Where did he put them? Mrs. Darling: He put them in a drawer. And sometimes, late at night, we take them out and admire them. But it gets harder and harder to close the drawer... He does. And that is why he is brave.
-- James M. Barrie

#Dream #Father #Sacrifice

I think it's perfectly lovely the way you talk about girls...
-- James M. Barrie

#Girl #Thinking #Lovely

Girls are much too clever to fall out of their prams
-- James M. Barrie

#Girl #Clever #Fall

Love, it is said, is blind, but love is not blind. It is an extra eye, which shows us what is most worthy of regard. To see the best is to see most clearly, and it is the lover's privilege.
-- James M. Barrie

#Love #Eye #Privilege

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.
-- James M. Barrie

#Running #Lips #Hook

No, no," Mr. Darling always said, "I am responsible for it all. I, George Darling, did it. MEA CULPA, MEA CULPA." He had had a classical education.
-- James M. Barrie

#Responsible #Said #Darling

I'll teach you how to jump on the wind's back, and then away we go.
-- James M. Barrie

#Wind #Away We Go #Teach

Just always be waiting for me.
-- James M. Barrie

#Waiting

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

#Awake #Not Sure

All of this has happened before, and it will all happen again.
-- James M. Barrie

I suppose it's like the ticking crocodile, isn't it? Time is chasing after all of us.
-- James M. Barrie

#Chasing #Crocodiles

Peter invented, with Wendy's help, a new game that fascinated him enormously, until he suddenly had no more interest in it, which, as you have been told, was what always happened with his games. It consisted in pretending not to have adventures...
-- James M. Barrie

#Adventure #Games #Helping

...it was like an examination paper that asks grammar, when what you want to be asked is Kings of England.
-- James M. Barrie

#Kings #England #Paper

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

#Three #Way #Admire

They were going round and round the island, but they did not meet because all were going at the same rate.
-- James M. Barrie

#Islands #Rate

Mr. Darling used to boast to Wendy that her mother not only loved him but respected him. He was one of those deep ones who know about stocks and shares. Of course no one really knows, but he quite seemed to know, and he often said stocks were up and shares were down in a way that would have made any woman respect him.
-- James M. Barrie

#Mother #Way #Respect Women

Most disquieting reflection of all, was it not bad form to think about good form?
-- James M. Barrie

#Reflection #Thinking #Form

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.
-- James M. Barrie

#Mother #Heart #Thinking

Growing up is such a barbarous business, full of inconvenience... and pimples.
-- James M. Barrie

#Growing Up #Growing #Pimples

Years rolled on again, and Wendy had a daughter. This ought not to be written in ink but in a golden splash.
-- James M. Barrie

#Daughter #Years #Ink

If he thought at all, but I don't believe he ever thought, it was that he and his shadow, when brought near each other, would join like drops of water...
-- James M. Barrie

#Believe #Water #Shadow

A moment after the fairy's entrance the window was blown open by the breathing of the little stars, and Peter dropped in.
-- James M. Barrie

#Stars #Breathing #Littles

Peter: Oh, the cleverness of me. Wendy: Of course, I did nothing... Peter: You did a little. Wendy: Oh, the cleverness of you.
-- James M. Barrie

#Littles #Peter #Cleverness

You always know after you are two. Two is the beginning of the end.
-- James M. Barrie

#Two #Ends

See," he said, "the arrow struck against this. It is the kiss I gave her. It has saved her life.
-- James M. Barrie

#Kissing #Arrows #Said

Again came that ringing crow, and Peter dropped in front of them. "Greeting, boys," he cried, and mechanically they saluted, and then again was silence. He frowned. "I am back," he said hotly, "why do you not cheer?
-- James M. Barrie

#Cheer #Boys #Silence

Two is the beginning of the end.
-- James M. Barrie

#Two #Ends

i know i'm not clever but i'm always right.
-- James M. Barrie

#Clever

Absence makes the heart grow fonder… or forgetful.
-- James M. Barrie

#Heart #Absence #Forgetful

After you have been unfair to him he will love you again, but he will never afterwards be quite the same boy. No one ever gets over the first unfairness; no one except Peter.
-- James M. Barrie

#Love You #Boys #Firsts

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.
-- James M. Barrie

#Moving #Boys #Fire

All are keeping a sharp look-out in front, but none suspects that the danger may be creeping up from behind.
-- James M. Barrie

#Looks #May #Danger

Strength instead of being the lusty child of passion, grows by grappling with and subduing them.
-- James M. Barrie

#Strength #Children #Passion

Courage: The lovely virtue-the rib of Himself that God sent down to His children.
-- James M. Barrie

#Courage #Children #Lovely

Always be kinder than necessary.
-- James M. Barrie

The gates of heaven are so easily found when we are little, and they are always standing open to let children wander in.
-- James M. Barrie

#Children #Heaven #Littles

You canna expect to be baith grand and comfortable.
-- James M. Barrie

#Fame

I like well to be in the company of explorers
-- James M. Barrie

#Wells #Company #Explorers

The man who is in real danger is the man who thinks he is perfectly safe.
-- James M. Barrie

#Inspirational #Real #Men

Dreams do come true, if we only wish hard enough.
-- James M. Barrie

#Inspirational #Dream #Wish

The best of our fiction is by novelists who allow that it is as good as they can give, and the worst by novelists who maintain that they could do much better if only the public would let them.
-- James M. Barrie

#Giving #Novelists #Fiction

Death is but the next great adventure.
-- James M. Barrie

#Adventure #Next

What is genius? It is the power to be a boy again at will.
-- James M. Barrie

#Boys #Genius

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. Some women, the few, have charm for all; and most have charm for one. But some have charm for none.
-- James M. Barrie

#Needs #Matter #Charm

How shall we ever know if it's morning if there's no servant to pull up the blinds?
-- James M. Barrie

#Morning #Upper Class #Pull Ups

You find a glimmer of happiness in this world, there's always someone who wants to destroy it.
-- James M. Barrie

#World #Want #This World

You [Scots] come of a race of men the very wind of whose name has swept to the ultimate seas.
-- James M. Barrie

#Men #Race #Wind

Have you noticed that many jewels make women either incredibly fat or incredibly thin?
-- James M. Barrie

#Sex #Jewels #Fats

May God blast anyone who writes a biography of me.
-- James M. Barrie

#Writing #May #Biographies

All great writers begin with a good leather binding and a respectable title.
-- James M. Barrie

#Titles #Leather #Respectable

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.
-- James M. Barrie

#Wise #Mother #Children

I do loathe explanations.
-- James M. Barrie

#Explanation

Anything is possible if you wish hard enough.
-- James M. Barrie

#Wish #Enough #Anything Is Possible

A loving wife is better than making 50 in cricket, or even 99, beyond that I will not go.
-- James M. Barrie

#Wife #Cricket

Oh the gladness of their gladness when they're glad, And the sadness of their sadness when they're sad; But the gladness of their gladness, and the sadness of their sadness, Are as nothing to their badness when they're bad
-- James M. Barrie

#Women #Sadness #Badness

Forget not your past, for in the future it may help you grow
-- James M. Barrie

#Past #May #Helping

Them that has china plates themsel's is the maist careful not to break the china plates of others
-- James M. Barrie

#Caring #Break #China

The man of science appears to be the only man who has something to say just now, and the only man who does not know how to say it.
-- James M. Barrie

#Science #Men #Doe

Has it ever struck you that trout bite best on the Sabbath? God's critters tempting decent men.
-- James M. Barrie

#Men #Fishing #Trout

Times have changed since a certain author was executed for murdering his publisher. They say that when the author was on the scaffold he said good-bye 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 good-bye. He said instead, "I'll see you again."
-- James M. Barrie

#Bye #Sitting #Saws

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.
-- James M. Barrie

#Air #Mushrooms #People

The Elizabethan age might be better named the beginning of the smoking era..
-- James M. Barrie

#Smoking #Age #Might

I am aware that those hateful persons called Original Researchers now maintain that Raleigh was not the man; but to them I turn a deaf ear.
-- James M. Barrie

#Men #Research #Ears