It is not real work unless you would rather be doing something else.
Quotations by:
Barrie, James
You must have been warned against letting the golden hours slip by. Yes, but some of them are golden only because we let them slip.
J. M. Barrie (1860-1937) Scottish novelist and dramatist [James Matthew Barrie]
“Courage,” Rectoral Address, University of St. Andrews, Scotland (1922-05-03)
(Source)
Never ascribe to an opponent motives meaner than your own.
J. M. Barrie (1860-1937) Scottish novelist and dramatist [James Matthew Barrie]
“Courage,” Rectoral Address, University of St. Andrews, Scotland (1922-05-03)
(Source)
Courage is the thing. All goes if courage goes.
J. M. Barrie (1860-1937) Scottish novelist and dramatist [James Matthew Barrie]
“Courage,” Rectoral Address, University of St. Andrews, Scotland (1922-05-03)
(Source)
God gave us our memories so that we might have roses in December.
J. M. Barrie (1860-1937) Scottish novelist and dramatist [James Matthew Barrie]
(Misattributed)
Barrie certainly popularized the quotation -- to the extent that everyone attributes it to him. But review his actually use of the phrase in his Rectoral Address, "Courage," at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland (1922-05-03):You have had many rectors here in St. Andrews who will continue in bloom long after the lowly ones such as I am are dead and rotten and forgotten. They are the roses in December; you remember someone said that God gave us memory so that we might have roses in December. But I do not envy the great ones. In my experience -- and you may find in the end it is yours also -- the people I have cared for most and who have seemed most worth caring for -- my December roses -- have been very simple folk.
Barrie himself credits the quotation to "someone said," and trusts that it is familiar enough that others will recognize the reference.
It appears that Barrie is paraphrasing another popular saying of the time, also generally attributed to "someone said" or "Anonymous":Memory was given to mortals that they might have roses in December.
[Source (1920), Source (1905), Source (1902), Source (1900)]
In short, Barrie originated the popular phrasing of the quotation, but the link between gift of "memory" and "roses in December" predates him (as he acknowledges).
Further discussion of this quotation's origins (and a call-back to me for my contributions): Quote Origin: God Gave Us Memory So That We Might Have Roses in December – Quote Investigator®.
Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.
J. M. Barrie (1860-1937) Scottish novelist and dramatist [James Matthew Barrie]
A Window in Thrums, ch. 18 “Leeby and Jamie” (1890)
(Source)
We never understand how little we need in this world until we know the loss of it.
J. M. Barrie (1860-1937) Scottish novelist and dramatist [James Matthew Barrie]
Margaret Ogilvy, ch. 8 “A Panic in the House” (1896)
(Source)
A biographical work about his mother and family. He identifies this as a favorite saying of hers.
My mother’s favourite 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.
J. M. Barrie (1860-1937) Scottish novelist and dramatist [James Matthew Barrie]
Margaret Ogilvy, ch. 10 “Art Thou Afraid His Power Shall Fail?” (1896)
(Source)
The book is a biographical work about his mother and family.
I had been gone a fortnight when the telegram was put into my hands. I had got a letter from my sister, a few hours before, saying that all was well at home. The telegram said in five words that she had died suddenly the previous night. There was no mention of my mother, and I was three days’ journey from home.
The news I got on reaching London was this: my mother did not understand that her daughter was dead, and they were waiting for me to tell her.J. M. Barrie (1860-1937) Scottish novelist and dramatist [James Matthew Barrie]
Margaret Ogilvy, ch. 10 “Art Thou Afraid His Power Shall Fail?” (1896)
(Source)
The book is a biographical work about his mother and family.
“Why can’t you fly now, mother?”
“Because I am grown up, dearest. When people grow up they forget the way.”
“Why do they forget the way?”
“Because they are no longer gay and innocent and heartless. It is only the gay and innocent and heartless who can fly.”J. M. Barrie (1860-1937) Scottish novelist and dramatist [James Matthew Barrie]
Peter & Wendy, ch. 17 (1911)
A safe but sometimes chilly way of recalling the past is to force open a crammed drawer. If you are searching for anything in particular you don’t find it, but something falls out at the back that is often more interesting.
J. M. Barrie (1860-1937) Scottish novelist and dramatist [James Matthew Barrie]
Peter Pan, “To the Five: A Dedication” (1928)
(Source)
PETER: (baldly) You see, Wendy, when the first baby laughed for the first time, the laugh broke into a thousand pieces and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies. And now when every new baby is born its first laugh becomes a fairy. So there ought to be one fairy for every boy or girl.
WENDY (breathlessly). Ought to be? Isn’t there?
PETER. Oh no. Children know such a lot now. Soon they 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. (He skips about heartlessly.)
J. M. Barrie (1860-1937) Scottish novelist and dramatist [James Matthew Barrie]
Peter Pan, Act 1 (1904, pub. 1928)
(Source)
In Barrie's novelization, Peter and Wendy, ch. 3 "Come Away, Come Away!" (1911), this is rendered:“You see, Wendy, when the first baby laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies.”
Tedious talk this, but being a stay-at-home she liked it.
“And so,” he went on good-naturedly, “there ought to be one fairy for every boy and girl.”
“Ought to be? Isn’t there?”
“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.”
PETER: Wendy, one girl is worth more than twenty boys.
J. M. Barrie (1860-1937) Scottish novelist and dramatist [James Matthew Barrie]
Peter Pan, Act 1 (1904, pub. 1928)
(Source)
In Barrie's novelization, Peter and Wendy, ch. 3 "Come Away, Come Away!" (1911), this is rendered:"Wendy," he continued, in a voice that no woman has ever yet been able to resist, “Wendy, one girl is more use than twenty boys.”
WENDY. Where do you live?
PETER. Second to the right and then straight on till morning.
WENDY. What a funny address!
PETER. No, it isn’t.
J. M. Barrie (1860-1937) Scottish novelist and dramatist [James Matthew Barrie]
Peter Pan, Act 1 (1904, pub. 1928)
(Source)
In Barrie's novelization, Peter and Wendy, ch. 3 "Come Away, Come Away!" (1911), this is rendered:She asked where he lived.
“Second to the right,” said Peter, “and then straight on till morning.”
“What a funny address!”
Peter had a sinking feeling. For the first time he felt that perhaps it was a funny address.
“No, it isn’t,” he said.
PETER: To die will be an awfully big adventure.
J. M. Barrie (1860-1937) Scottish novelist and dramatist [James Matthew Barrie]
Peter Pan, Act 3 (1904, pub. 1928)
(Source)
This was added to the play in 1905, at the end of Act 3:(The waters are lapping over the rock now, and PETER knows that it will soon be submerged. Pale rays of light mingle with the moving clouds, and from the coral grottoes is to be heard a sound, at once the most musical and the most melancholy in the Never Land, the mermaids calling to the moon to rise. PETER is afraid at last, and a tremor runs through him, like a shudder passing over the lagoon; but on the lagoon one shudder follows another till there are hundreds of them, and he feels just the one.)
PETER (with a drum beating in his breast as if he were a real boy at last): To die will be an awfully big adventure.In Barrie's novelization, Peter and Wendy, ch. 8 "The Mermaids' Lagoon" (1911), this is rendered:
The rock was very small now; soon it would be submerged. Pale rays of light tiptoed across the waters; and by and by there was to be heard a sound at once the most musical and the most melancholy in the world: the mermaids calling to the moon.
Peter was not quite like other boys; but he was afraid at last. A tremor ran through him, like a shudder passing over the sea; but on the sea one shudder follows another till there are hundreds of them, and Peter felt just the one. 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.”
Sometimes given as "To die would be an awfully great adventure," "To die will be a great adventure," or "To die would be a great adventure."
The best of our fiction is by novelists who allow that it is as good as they can give, and the worst by novelists who maintain that they could do much better if only the public would let them.
J. M. Barrie (1860-1937) Scottish novelist and dramatist [James Matthew Barrie]
The Contemporary Review (1891)
The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story and writes another, and his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he vowed to make it.
J. M. Barrie (1860-1937) Scottish novelist and dramatist [James Matthew Barrie]
The Little Minister, ch. 1 “The Love-Light” (1891)
(Source)
If it’s heaven for climate, it’s hell for company.
J. M. Barrie (1860-1937) Scottish novelist and dramatist [James Matthew Barrie]
The Little Minister, ch. 3 “The Night-Watchers” [Jo Cruickshanks] (1891)
(Source)
A similar quote is cited to Mark Twain at about the same time. More research into this quotation can be found here: Heaven for the Climate, and Hell for the Company – Quote Investigator®.
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.
J. M. Barrie (1860-1937) Scottish novelist and dramatist [James Matthew Barrie]
The Little Minister, ch. 3 [Mr. Carfrae] (1891)
(Source)
There are, I dare say, many lovers who would never have been drawn to each other had they met for the first time, as, say, they met the second time.
J. M. Barrie (1860-1937) Scottish novelist and dramatist [James Matthew Barrie]
The Little Minister, ch. 4 “First Coming of the Egyptian Woman” (1891)
(Source)
Let no one who loves be called altogether unhappy. Even love unreturned has its rainbow.
J. M. Barrie (1860-1937) Scottish novelist and dramatist [James Matthew Barrie]
The Little Minister, ch. 24 “The New World, and the Woman Who May Not Dwell Therein” (1891)
(Source)
Wise children always choose a mother who was a shocking flirt in her maiden days, and so had several offers before she accepted their fortunate papa.
J. M. Barrie (1860-1937) Scottish novelist and dramatist [James Matthew Barrie]
The Little White Bird, ch. 22 (1902)
Shall we make a new rule of life from tonight: always to try to be a little kinder than is necessary?
J. M. Barrie (1860-1937) Scottish novelist and dramatist [James Matthew Barrie]
The Little White Bird, ch. 4 (1902)
KATE: Oh, Harry, you and your sublime religion.
SIR HARRY: My religion? I never was one to talk about religion, but —
KATE. Pooh, Harry, you don’t even know what your religion was and is and will be till the day of your expensive funeral. One’s religion is whatever he is most interested in, and yours is Success.
J. M. Barrie (1860-1937) Scottish novelist and dramatist [James Matthew Barrie]
The Twelve-Pound Look (1910)
(Source)
SIR HARRY: Ambition — it is the last infirmity of noble minds.
J. M. Barrie (1860-1937) Scottish novelist and dramatist [James Matthew Barrie]
The Twelve-Pound Look (1910)
MAGGIE: Every man who is high up loves to think that he has done it all himself; and the wife smiles, and lets it go at that.
J. M. Barrie (1860-1937) Scottish novelist and dramatist [James Matthew Barrie]
What Every Woman Knows, Act 4 (1918)
(Source)