Explore Quotes by James M. Barrie

Facts were never pleasing to him. He acquired them with reluctance and got rid of them with relief. He was never on terms with them until he had stood them on their heads.

The praise that comes of love does not make us vain, but humble rather. Knowing what we are, the pride that shines in our mother's eyes as she looks at us is about the most pathetic thing a man has to face, but he would be a devil altogether if it did not burn some of the sin out of him.

He who distributes the milk of human kindness cannot help but spill a little on himself.

Oh, God, if I were sure I were to die tonight I would repent at once. It is the commonest prayer in all languages.

What a polite game tennis is. The chief word in it seems to be "sorry" and admiration of each other's play crosses the net as frequently as the ball.

Men's second childhood begins when a woman gets a hold of him.

A house is never still in darkness to those who listen intently; there is a whispering in distant chambers, an unearthly hand presses the snib of the window, the latch rises. Ghosts were created when the first man awoke in the night.

She was a large woman who seemed not so much dressed as upholstered.

If I were younger, I'd know more.

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

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.

Fame is rot; daughters are the thing.

One's religion is whatever he is most interested in.

I am not young enough to know everything.

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

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.

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.

Nothing is really work unless you would rather be doing something else.

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

Would you like an adventure now, or would you like to have your tea first?

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.