WIST Quotations

Barrie, James -- Peter Pan, Act 5 (1904, pub. 1928)

Dave — Tue, 29 Apr 2025 17:43:39 +0000

MRS. DARLING: (from the window) Peter, where are you? Let me adopt you too. (She is the loveliest age for a woman, but too old to see PETER clearly.)

PETER: Would you send me to school?

MRS. DARLING: (obligingly) Yes.

PETER: And then to an office?

MRS. DARLING: I suppose so.

PETER: Soon I should be a man?

MRS. DARLING: Very soon.

PETER: (passionately) I don’t want to go to school and learn solemn things. No one is going to catch me, lady, and make me a man. I want always to be a little boy and to have fun.

J. M. Barrie (1860-1937) Scottish novelist and dramatist [James Matthew Barrie]
Peter Pan, Act 5 (1904, pub. 1928)
(Source)

In Barrie's novelization, Peter and Wendy, ch. 17 "When Wendy Grew Up" (1911), this is rendered:

Mrs. Darling came to the window, for at present she was keeping a sharp eye on Wendy. She told Peter that she had adopted all the other boys, and would like to adopt him also.
“Would you send me to school?” he inquired craftily.
“Yes.”
“And then to an office?”
“I suppose so.”
“Soon I should be a man?”
“Very soon.”
“I don’t want to go to school and learn solemn things,” he told her passionately. “I don’t want to be a man. O Wendy’s mother, if I was to wake up and feel there was a beard!”
“Peter,” said Wendy the comforter, “I should love you in a beard;” and 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.”

Barrie, James -- Peter Pan, Act 4 (1904, pub. 1928)

Dave — Tue, 31 Dec 2024 18:59:47 +0000

PETER: (his pipes more riotous than ever) I just want always to be a little boy and to have fun.

J. M. Barrie (1860-1937) Scottish novelist and dramatist [James Matthew Barrie]
Peter Pan, Act 4 (1904, pub. 1928)
(Source)

Peter's refusal to return to the real world with the other Lost Boys. In Barrie's novelization, Peter and Wendy, ch. 11 "Wendy's Story" (1911), the same language is used.

Wolfe, Tom -- The Bonfire of the Vanities, ch. 21 (1987)

Dave — Sat, 15 Jun 2024 18:46:40 +0000

And in that moment Sherman made the terrible discovery that men make about their fathers sooner or later. For the first time he realized that the man before him was not an aging father but a boy, a boy much like himself, a boy who grew up and had a child of his own and, as best he could, out of a sense of duty and, perhaps love, adopted a role called Being a Father so that his child would have something mythical and infinitely important: a Protector, who would keep a lid on all the chaotic and catastrophic possibilities of life.

Tom Wolfe (1930-2018) American author and journalist [Thomas Kennerly Wolfe Jr.]
The Bonfire of the Vanities, ch. 21 (1987)
(Source)

Leacock, Stephen -- The Lot of the Schoolmaster (1916)

Dave — Wed, 20 Jan 2016 14:24:09 +0000

The parent who could see his boy as he really is would shake his head and say: ‘Willy is no good: I’ll sell him.’

Stephen Leacock (1869-1944) Canadian economist, writer and humorist
The Lot of the Schoolmaster (1916)

Clark, Tom C. -- (Attributed)

Dave — Wed, 06 Jan 2016 14:20:09 +0000

I am convinced that every boy, in his heart, would rather steal second base than an automobile.

Tom C. Clark (1899-1977) American lawyer, US Attorney General, US Supreme Court Justice (1949-1967)
(Attributed)

Speaking of recreational programs to reduce juvenile delinquency. Quoted in Reader's Digest, Vol. 60 (1952). Restated as "I still believe that any boy would rather steal second base than an automobile" in Washington World, Vol. 3 (1963).

Bierce, Ambrose -- San Francisco News-Letter, “Town Crier” column (c. 1870)

Dave — Wed, 23 Dec 2015 19:03:31 +0000

The fact that boys are allowed to exist at all is evidence of remarkable Christian forbearance among men — were it not for a mawkish humanitarianism, coupled with imperfect digestive powers, we should devour our young, as Nature intended.

Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
San Francisco News-Letter, “Town Crier” column (c. 1870)