Courage is the thing. All goes if courage goes.
James Barrie (1860-1937) Scottish novelist and dramatist
“Courage,” Rectoral Address, St. Andrew’s University, Scotland (3 May 1922)
(Source)
Quotations by:
Barrie, James
Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.
James Barrie (1860-1937) Scottish novelist and dramatist
A Window in Thrums, ch. 18 “Leeby and Jamie” (1890)
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We never understand how little we need in this world until we know the loss of it.
James Barrie (1860-1937) Scottish novelist and dramatist
Margaret Ogilvy, ch. 8 “A Panic in the House” (1896)
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A biographical work about his mother and family. He identifies this as a favorite saying of hers.
“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.”
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.
To die will be an awfully big adventure.
James Barrie (1860-1937) Scottish novelist and dramatist
Peter Pan, Act III, final sentence (1905)
The following passage was in the 1911 book (ch. 8 "The Mermaid's Lagoon"); the scene was added to the 1905 edition of the play:
Peter was alone on the lagoon.
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 quoted as "To die would be an awfully great adventure," "To die will be a great adventure," and "To die would be a great adventure."
If it’s heaven for climate, it’s hell for company.
James Barrie (1860-1937) Scottish novelist and dramatist
The Little Minister, ch. 3 (1891)
A similar quote is cited to Mark Twain at about the same time. More research into this quotation can be found here.
ALICK. What IS charm, exactly, Maggie?
MAGGIE. Oh, it’s — 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.