Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

J.M. Barrie, fully Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet

Scottish Dramatist, Author, Novelist, best known as creator of Peter Pan

"You have been warned against letting the golden hours slip by. Yes, but some of them are golden only because we let them slip by."

"You know that place between sleep and awake, the place where you can still remember dreaming? That's where I'll always love you, Peter Pan. That's where I'll be waiting."

"You know why swallows build their nests under the eaves of houses? To listen to stories."

"You know, Wendy, when the first baby laughed for the first time, his smile was smashed into thousands of pieces and they jumped around. Thus came the first 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."

"You need not be sorry for her. She was one of the kind that likes to grow up. In the end she grew up of her own free will a day quicker than the other girls."

"You promised not to! I couldn't help it. I am a married woman, Peter."

"You see, dear, it is not true that woman was made from man's rib; she was really made from his funny bone."

"You won't forget me, Peter, will you, before spring-cleaning time comes? Of course Peter promised, and then he flew away. He took Mrs. Darling's kiss with him. The kiss that had been for no one else Peter took quite easily. Funny. But she seemed satisfied."

"Young boys should never be sent to bed. They always wake up a day older."

"Your heart is as fresh as your face; and that is well. The useless men are those who never change with the years. Many views that I held to in my youth and long afterwards are a pain to me now, and I am carrying away from Thrums memories of errors into which I fell at every stage of my ministry. When you are older you will know that life is a long lesson in humility."