Great Throughts Treasury

"If you ask your mother whether she knew about Peter Pan when she was a little girl she will say, Why, of course, I did, child, and if you ask her whether he rode on a goat in those days she will say, What a foolish question to ask; certainly he did. Then if you ask your grandmother whether she knew about Peter Pan when she was a girl, she also says, Why, of course, I did, child, but if you ask her whether he rode on a goat in those days, she says she never heard of his having a goat. Perhaps she has forgotten, just as she sometimes forgets your name and calls you Mildred, which is your mother's name. Still, she could hardly forget such an important thing as the goat. Therefore there was no goat when your grandmother was a little girl. This shows that, in telling the story of Peter Pan, to begin with the goat (as most people do) is as silly as to put on your jacket before your vest."

"If you believe, he shouted to them, clap your hands; don't let Tink die."

"If you cannot teach me to fly, teach me to sing."

"If you have love you don't need to have anything else. If you don't have it it doesn't matter much what else you do have."

"If you shut your eyes and are a lucky one, you may see at times a shapeless pool of lovely pale colors suspended in the darkness; the if you squeeze your eyes tighter, the pool begins to take shape, and the colors become so vivid that with another squeeze they must go on fire. But just before they go on fire you see the lagoon. This is the nearest you ever get to it on the mainland, just one heavenly moment..."

"I'll teach you to jump on the wind's back, and away we go."

"I'm not young enough to know everything."

"I'm youth, I'm joy! Peter sang out. I'm a little bird that has broken out of the egg. This, of course, was nonsense; but it was proof to the unhappy Hook that Peter did not know at all who or what he was. This Hook though to be the best of good manners."

"I'm youth, I'm joy, I'm a little bird that has broken out of the egg."

"I'm youth, I'm joy, Peter answered at a venture, I'm a little bird that has broken out of the egg."

"In dinner talk it is perhaps allowable to fling any faggot rather than let the fire go out."

"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."

"In twenty years, I said, smiling at her tears, a man grows humble, Mary. I have stored within me a great fund of affection, with nobody to give it to, and I swear to you, on the word of a soldier, that if there is one of those ladies who can be got to care for me I shall be very proud. Despite her semblance of delight I knew that she was wondering at me, and I wondered at myself, but it was true."

"It has been said of the unseen army of the dead, on their everlasting march, that when they are passing a rural cricket ground, the Englishmen fall out of the ranks for a moment to lean over a gate and smile."

"It is all very well to be able to write books, but can you waggle your ears?"

"It is frightfully difficult to know much about the fairies, and almost the only thing known for certain is that there are fairies wherever there are children."

"It is not in doing what you like, but in liking what you do that is the secret of happiness."

"It is not real work unless you would rather be doing something else."

"It is of another minister I am to tell, but only to those who know that light when they see it. I am not bidding good-bye to many readers, for though it is true that some men, of whom Lord Rintoul was one, live to an old age without knowing love, few of us can have met them, and of women so incomplete I never heard."

"It is the custom of every good mother after her children are asleep to rummage in their minds and put things straight for next morning, repacking into their proper places the many articles that have wandered during the day. If you could keep awake (but of course you can’t) you would see your own mother doing this, and you would find it very interesting to watch her. It is quite like tidying up drawers. You would see her on her knees, I expect, lingering humorously over some of your contents, wondering where on earth you had picked this thing up, making discoveries sweet and not so sweet, pressing this to her cheek as if it were as nice as a kitten, and hurriedly stowing that out of sight. When you wake in the morning, the naughtinesses and evil passions with which you went to bed have been folded up small and placed at the bottom of your mind; and on the top, beautifully aired, are spread out prettier thoughts, ready for you to put on."

"It is very well to be able to write a book, but can you waggle your ears?"

"It is wonderful how much you can conceal between the touch of the handle and the opening of the door if your heart is in it."

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

"It was like an examination paper that asks grammar, when what you want to be asked is Kings of England."

"It was not really Saturday night, at least it may have been, for they had long lost count of the days; but always if they wanted to do anything special they said this was Saturday night, and then they did it."

"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."

"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."

"It's grand, and ye canna expect to be baith grand and comfortable."

"I've sometimes thought . . . that the difference between us and the English is that the Scotch are hard in all other respects but soft with women, and the English are hard with women but soft in all other respects."

"Just always be waiting for me."

"Let no one who loves be called unhappy. Even love unreturned has its rainbow."

"Love is not blind; it is an extra eye, which shows us what is most worthy of regard."

"Many clapped. Some didn't. A few beasts hissed. The clapping stopped suddenly; as if countless mothers had rushed to their nurseries to see what on earth was happening; but already Tink was saved. First her voice grew strong, then she popped out of bed, then she was flashing through the room more merry and impudent than ever. She never thought of thanking those who believed, but she would have like to get at the ones who had hissed."

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

"Michael believed longer than the other boys, though they jeered at him; so he was with Wendy when Peter came for her at the end of the first year. She flew away with Peter in the frock she had woven from leaves and berries in the Neverland, and her one fear was that he might notice how short it had become; but he never noticed, he had so much to say about himself. She had looked forward to thrilling talks with him about old times, but new adventures had crowded the old ones from his mind."

"Most disquieting reflection of all, was it not bad form to think about good form?"

"Mr. and Mrs. Darling and Nana rushed into the nursery too late. The birds were flown."

"Mr. Darling had a passion for being exactly like his neighbors."

"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."

"Mrs. Darling first heard of Peter when she was tidying up her children's minds. It is the nightly custom of every good mother after her children are asleep to rummage in their minds and put things straight for next morning, repacking into their proper places the many articles that have wandered during the day. If you could keep awake (but of course you can't) you would see your own mother doing this and you would find it very interesting to watch. It's quite like tidying up drawers. You would see her on her knees, I expect, lingering humorously over some of your contents, wondering where on Earth you picked this thing up, making discoveries sweet and not so sweet, pressing this to her cheek, as if it were a nice kitten, and hurriedly stowing that out of sight. When you wake in the morning, the naughtiness and evil passions with which you went to bed have been folded up small and placed at the bottom of your mind and on the top, beautifully aired, are spread out the prettier thoughts, ready for you to put on."

"Mrs. Darling loved to have everything just so, and Mr. Darling had a passion for being exactly like his neighbours; so, of course, they had a nurse. As they were poor, owing to the amount of milk the children drank, this nurse was a prim Newfoundland dog, called Nana, who had belonged to no one in particular until the Darlings engaged her. She had always thought children important, however, and the Darlings had become acquainted with her in Kensington Gardens, where she spent most of her spare time peeping into perambulators, and was much hated by careless nursemaids, whom she followed to their homes and complained of to their mistresses. She proved to be quite a treasure of a nurse."

"My mother's favorite paraphrase is one known in our house as David's because it was the last he learned to repeat. It was also the last thing she read — Art thou afraid his power shall fail When comes thy evil day? And can an all-creating arm Grow weary or decay? I heard her voice gain strength as she read it, I saw her timid face take courage, but when came my evil day, then at the dawning, alas for me, I was afraid."

"Never ascribe to an opponent motives meaner than your own."

"Never is an awfully long time."

"Never say goodbye because goodbye means going away and going away means forgetting."

"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."

"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."

"No. You see children know such a lot now, they soon don't believe in fairies, and every time a child says, 'I don't believe in fairies,' there is a fairy somewhere that falls down dead."

"Nobody really wants us. So let us watch and say jaggy things, in the hope that some of them will hurt."

"Nonsense. Young boys should never be sent to bed. They always wake up a day older, and then before you know it, they're grown."