Explore 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.

My mother always says people should be able to take care of themselves, even if they're rich and important.

I pretend I am a princess,so that I can try and behave like one.

Perhaps there is a language which is not made of words and everything in the world understands it.

When a man is overcome by anger, he has a poisoned fever. He loses his strength, he loses his power over himself and over others. He throws away time in which he might have gained the end he desires. The is no time for anger in the world. - The Ancient One

If you fill your mind with a beautiful thought, there will be no room in it for an ugly one. - King Amor

I don't know who it is," she said; "but somebody cares for me a little. I have a friend.

Yes," answered Sara, nodding. "Adversity tries people, and mine has tried you and proved how nice you are.

Listen to th' wind wutherin' round the house," she said. "You could bare stand up on the moor if you was out on it tonight." Mary did not know what "wutherin'" meant until she listened, and then she understood. It must mean that hollow shuddering sort of roar which rushed round and round the house, as if the giant no one could see were buffeting it and beating at the walls and windows to try to break in. But one knew he could not get in, and somehow it made one feel very safe and warm inside a room with a red coal fire.

...and her mother had been a great beauty who cared only to go to parties and amuse herself with gay parties.

Hang in there. It is astonishing how short a time it can take for very wonderful things to happen.

I shall live forever and ever and ever ' he cried grandly. 'I shall find out thousands and thousands of things. I shall find out about people and creatures and everything that grows - like Dickon - and I shall never stop making Magic. I'm well I'm well

Never thee stop believin' in th' Big Good Thing an' knowin' th' world's full of it - and call it what tha' likes. Tha' wert singin' to it when I come into t' garden.

She wished she could talk as he did. His speech was so quick and easy. It sounded as if he liked her and was not the least afraid she would not like him, though he was only a common moor boy, in patched clothes and with a funny face and a rough, rusty-red head.

Mistress Mary Quite Contrary

And the secret garden bloomed and bloomed and every morning revealed new miracles.

But I suppose there might be good in things, even if we don't see it.

The truth is that when one is still a child-or even if one is grown up- and has been well fed, and has slept long and softly and warm; when one has gone to sleep in the midst of a fairy story, and has wakened to find it real, one cannot be unhappy or even look as if one were; and one could not, if one tried, keep a glow of joy out of one's eyes.

She did not know that this was the best thing she could have done, and she did not know that, when she began to walk quickly or even run along the paths and down the avenue, she was stirring her slow blood and making herself stronger by fighting with the wind which swept down from the moor.

Is the spring coming?" he said. "What is it like?"... "It is the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sunshine.

I am writing in the garden. To write as one should of a garden one must write not outside it or merely somewhere near it, but in the garden.