Scottish novelist & dramatist (1860-1937)
I am much better without tobacco, and already have a difficulty in sympathizing with the man I used to be. Even to call him up, as it were, and regard him without prejudice is a difficult task, for we forget the old selves on whom we have turned our backs, as we forget a street that has been reconstructed.
J.M. BARRIE
My Lady Nicotine
Everything had been done so quietly that Peter was quite unaware of his friends' sad fate. He only knew that he was all alone, that Wendy and Michael, and John, and all the Lost Boys who had been his companions were on their way from the Never-Never-Never-Land to the country of the ordinary people who wear tall hats and frock coats as soon as they are old enough, and grow up one after the other.
J. M. BARRIE
Peter Pan
I just want always to be a little boy and have fun.
J.M. BARRIE
Peter Pan
God gave us memories that we might have roses in December.
J. M. BARRIE
Courage
As for a cigar after dinner, it only makes you dull and sleepy and disinclined for ladies' society.
J.M. BARRIE
My Lady Nicotine
Wendy, one girl is worth more than twenty boys.
J.M. BARRIE
Peter Pan
Ambition -- it is the last infirmity of noble minds.
J.M. BARRIE
The Twelve-Pound Look
I'm youth, I'm joy, I'm a little bird that has broken out of the egg.
J.M. BARRIE
Peter Pan
The law is such a sedentary calling, that parents who care for their sons' health should advise them against it.
J.M. BARRIE
"Every Man His Own Doctor", A Holiday in Bed and Other Sketches
Statistics showing the number of persons who yearly meet their death in our great cities by the fall of telegraph wires are published from time to time. As our cities grow, and the need of telegraphic communication is more generally felt, this danger will become even more conspicuous. Persons who value their lives are earnestly advised not to walk under telegraph wires.
J.M. BARRIE
"Every Man His Own Doctor", A Holiday in Bed and Other Sketches
There are few more impressive sights in the world than a Scotsman on the make.
J.M. BARRIE
What Every Woman Knows
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.
J.M. BARRIE
What Every Woman Knows
Fairies don't live long, but they are so little that a short time seems a good while to them.
J. M. BARRIE
Peter Pan
It is strange how attached we become to old friends, though they be but inanimate objects.
J.M. BARRIE
My Lady Nicotine
I do loathe explanations.
J.M. BARRIE
My Lady Nicotine
When you were a bird you knew the fairies pretty well, and you remember a good deal about them in your babyhood, which it is a great pity you can't write down, for gradually you forget, and I have heard of children who declared that they had never once seen a fairy. Very likely if they said this in the Kensington Gardens, they were standing looking at a fairy all the time.
J.M. BARRIE
The Little White Bird
I'm not young enough to know everything.
J.M. BARRIE
The Admirable Crichton
We dress far too heavily. The fact is, that we would be a much healthier people if we wore less clothing. Ladies especially wrap themselves up too much, with the result that their blood does not circulate freely.
J.M. BARRIE
"Every Man His Own Doctor", A Holiday in Bed and Other Sketches
The very smell of tobacco is abominable, for one cannot get it out of the curtains, and there is little pleasure in existence unless the curtains are all right.
J.M. BARRIE
My Lady Nicotine
People have tried a holiday in bed before now, and found it a failure, but that was because they were ignorant of the rules. They went to bed with the open intention of staying there, say, three days, and found to their surprise that each morning they wanted to get up. This was a novel experience to them, they flung about restlessly, and probably shortened their holiday. The proper thing is to take your holiday in bed with a vague intention of getting up in another quarter of an hour. The real pleasure of lying in bed after you are awake is largely due to the feeling that you ought to get up. To take another quarter of an hour then becomes a luxury. You are, in short, in the position of the man who dined on larks. Had he seen the hundreds that were ready for him, all set out on one monster dish, they would have turned his stomach; but getting them two at a time, he went on eating till all the larks were exhausted. His feeling of uncertainty as to whether these might not be his last two larks is your feeling that, perhaps, you will have to get up in a quarter of an hour. Deceive yourself in this way, and your holiday in bed will pass only too quickly.
J.M. BARRIE
"A Holiday in Bed", A Holiday in Bed and Other Sketches