Wendy, Wendy, when you are sleeping in your silly bed you might be flying about with me saying funny things to the stars.
James M. BarrieRead
She adored all beautiful things in their every curve and fragrance, so that they became part of her. Day by day, she gathered beauty; had she had no heart (she who was the bosom of womanhood) her thoughts would still have been as lilies, because the good is the beautiful.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the deep appreciation for beauty in all its forms and how it enriches the soul.
In this quote, James M. Barrie expresses the idea that a true appreciation for beauty can profoundly shape one's character and thoughts. The protagonist's love for beauty, represented through curves and fragrances, signifies an intrinsic quality of goodness, linking aesthetic pleasure with a rich emotional experience. This understanding of beauty as essential to humanity suggests that even in the absence of traditional emotions, one could still embody grace and virtue simply through a love of beautiful things.
Themes
BeautyAppreciationArtGoodnessNature
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a speech about the importance of art and creativity in our lives.
More from James M. Barrie
All quotes →His lordship may compel us to be equal upstairs, but there will never be equality in the servants' hall.
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The secret of happiness is not in doing what one likes, but in liking what one does.
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Never ascribe to an opponent motives meaner than your own.
James M. BarrieRead
It was then that Hook bit him. Not the pain of this but its unfairness was what dazed Peter. It made him quite helpless. He could only stare, horrified. Every child is affected thus the first time he is treated unfairly. All he thinks he has a right to when he comes to you to be yours is fairness. 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. BarrieRead
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. BarrieRead
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