Top 280 James M. Barrie Quotes (2026 Update)
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101. “It was because I heard father and mother,′ he explained in a low voice, ‘talking about what I was to be when I became a man.’ He was extraordinarily agitated now. ‘I don’t want ever to be a man,’ he said with passion. ‘I want always to be a little boy and to have fun.”

— James M. Barrie

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

— James M. Barrie

103. “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

104. “He was a poet; and they are never exactly grown-up.”

— James M. Barrie

105. “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

106. “Has it ever struck you that trout bite best on the Sabbath? God’s critters tempting decent men.”

— 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. “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

109. “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

110. “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

111. “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

112. “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

113. “This meal happened to be a make-believe tea, and they sat round the board guzzling in their greed; and really, what with their chatter and recriminations, the noise, as Wendy said, was positively deafening.”

— James M. Barrie

114. “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

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

— James M. Barrie

116. “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

117. “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

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

— James M. Barrie

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

— James M. Barrie

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

— 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. “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

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

— James M. Barrie

124. “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

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

— James M. Barrie

126. “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

127. “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

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

— James M. Barrie

129. “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

130. “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

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

— James M. Barrie

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

— James M. Barrie

133. “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

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

— James M. Barrie

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

— James M. Barrie

136. “I say, Wendy,” he whispered to her, “always if you see me forgetting you, just keep on saying ‘I’m Wendy,’ and then I’ll remember.”

— James M. Barrie

137. “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

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

— James M. Barrie

139. “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

140. “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

141. “I am the best there ever was!”

— James M. Barrie

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

— James M. Barrie

143. “Tink was not all bad: or, rather, she was all bad just now, but, on the other hand, sometimes she was all good. Fairies have to be one thing or the other, because being so small they unfortunately have room for one feeling only at a time. They are, however, allowed to change, only it must be a complete change.”

— James M. Barrie

144. “Would you like an adventure now,” he said casually to John, “or would you like to have your tea first?”

— James M. Barrie

145. “Every man who is high up likes to think he has done it all himself; and the wife smiles, and lets it go at that. It’s our only joke. Every woman knows that.”

— James M. Barrie

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

— James M. Barrie

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

— James M. Barrie

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

— James M. Barrie

149. “No one ever gets over the first unfairness; no one except Peter. He often met it, but he always forgot it. I suppose that was the real difference between him and all the rest.”

— James M. Barrie

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

— James M. Barrie