Top 280 James M. Barrie Quotes (2024 Update)
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101. “When a new baby laughs for the first time a new fairy is born, and as there are always new babies there are always new fairies.”

— James M. Barrie

102. “He was never more sinister than when he was most polite...”

— James M. Barrie

103. “Years rolled on again, and Wendy had a daughter. This ought not to be written in ink but in a golden splash.”

— James M. Barrie

104. “She liked his tears so much that she put out her beautiful finger and let them run over it. Her voice was so low that at first he could not make out what she said. Then he made it out. She was saying that she thought she could get well again if children believed in fairies.”

— James M. Barrie

105. “You see, dear, it is not true that woman was made from man’s rib; she was made from his funny bone.”

— James M. Barrie

106. “Our heroine knew that the mother would always leave the window open for her children to fly back by; so they stayed away for years and had a lovely time...”

— James M. Barrie

107. “A moment after the fairy’s entrance the window was blown open by the breathing of the little stars, and Peter dropped in.”

— James M. Barrie

108. “In love-making, as in other arts, those who do it best cannot tell how it is done.”

— James M. Barrie

109. “Thus did the terrified three learn the difference between an island of make-believe and the same island come true.”

— James M. Barrie

110. “After a time he fell asleep, and some unsteady fairies had to climb over him on their way home from an orgy.”

— James M. Barrie

111. “Will they reach the nursery in time? If so, how delightful for them, and we shall all breathe a sigh of relief, but there will be no story. On the other hand, if they are not in time, I solemnly promise that it will all come right in the end.”

— James M. Barrie

112. “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.”

— James M. Barrie

113. “If you cannot teach me to fly, teach me to sing.”

— James M. Barrie

114. “I think one remains the same person throughout, merely passing, as it were, i these lapses of time from one room to another, but all in the same house.”

— James M. Barrie

115. “Life and death, the child and the mother, are ever meeting as the one draws into harbour and the other sets sail. They exchange a bright “All’s well” and pass on.”

— James M. Barrie

116. “Doctors sometimes draw maps of other parts of you, and your own map can become intensely interesting, but catch them trying to draw a map of a child’s mind, which is not only confused, but keeps going round all the time.”

— James M. Barrie

117. “Wendy: Sir, you are both ungallant and deficient! Peter: How am I deficient? Wendy: You’re just a boy.”

— James M. Barrie

118. “The man of science appears to be the only man who has something to say just now, and the only man who does not know how to say it.”

— James M. Barrie

119. “Dreams do come true, if we only wish hard enough.”

— James M. Barrie

120. “Children have the strangest adventures without being troubled by them. For instance, they may remember to mention, a week after the event happened, that when they were in the wood they had met their dead father and had a game with him.”

— James M. Barrie

121. “The door’, replied Maimie, ’will always, always be open, and mother will always be waiting at it for me.”

— James M. Barrie

122. “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.”

— James M. Barrie

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

— James M. Barrie

124. “Good form without knowing it is the best form of all.”

— James M. Barrie

125. “If I were younger, I’d know more.”

— James M. Barrie

126. “When ladies used to come to me in dreams, I said, ‘Pretty mother, pretty mother.’ But when at last she really came, I shot her.”

— James M. Barrie

127. “I like well to be in the company of explorers.”

— James M. Barrie

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

— James M. Barrie

129. “I taught you to fight and to fly. What more could there be?”

— James M. Barrie

130. “Mrs. Darling stretched out her arms to him, but he repulsed her. “Keep back, lady, no one is going to catch me and make me a man.”

— James M. Barrie

131. “I am the best there ever was!”

— James M. Barrie

132. “I have always found that the man whose second thoughts are good is worth watching.”

— James M. Barrie

133. “I am aware that those hateful persons called Original Researchers now maintain that Raleigh was not the man; but to them I turn a deaf ear.”

— James M. Barrie

134. “Most disquieting reflection of all, was it not bad form to think about good form?”

— James M. Barrie

135. “She says she glories in being abandoned.”

— James M. Barrie

136. “Our life is a book to which we add daily, until suddenly we are finished, and then the manuscript is burned.”

— James M. Barrie

137. “I remember kisses,” said Slightly. “Let me see. Aye, that is a kiss. A powerful thing.”

— James M. Barrie

138. “Bringing up the rear, the place of greatest danger, comes Tiger Lily, proudly erect, a princess in her own right. She is the most beautiful of dusky Dianas and the belle of the Piccaninnies, coquettish, cold, and amorous by turns; there is not a brave who would not have the wayward thing to wife, but she staves off the altar with a hatchet.”

— James M. Barrie

139. “There never was a simpler, happier family until the coming of Peter Pan.”

— James M. Barrie

140. “Peter invented, with Wendy’s help, a new game that fascinated him enormously, until he suddenly had no more interest in it, which, as you have been told, was what always happened with his games. It consisted in pretending not to have adventures...”

— James M. Barrie

141. “There were odd stories about him; as that when children died he went part of the way with them, so that they should not be frightened. She.”

— James M. Barrie

142. “Of course the Neverlands vary a good deal. John’s, for instance, had a lagoon with flamingoes flying over it at which John was shooting, while Michael, who was very small, had a flamingo with lagoons flying over it.”

— James M. Barrie

143. “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.”

— James M. Barrie

144. “I think it’s perfectly lovely the way you talk about girls...”

— James M. Barrie

145. “Them that has china plates themsel’s is the maist careful not to break the china plates of others.”

— James M. Barrie

146. “The best place a person can die, is where they die for others.”

— James M. Barrie

147. “Peter spoke indignantly. “You don’t think I would kill him while he was sleeping! I would wake him first, and then kill him. That’s the way I always do.” “I say! Do you kill many?” “Tons!”

— James M. Barrie

148. “The difference between him and the other boys at such a time was that they knew it was make-believe, while to hime make-believe and true were exactly the same thing. This sometimes troubled them, as when they had to make-believe that they had had their dinners.”

— James M. Barrie

149. “Feeling that Peter was on his way back, the Neverland had again woke into life. We ought to use the pluperfect and say wakened, but woke is better and was always used by Peter.”

— James M. Barrie

150. “Those who aim low usually hit their targets.”

— James M. Barrie