Quotes by E. Nesbit

“So he caught her in his arms and kissed her, and they were very happy, and told each other what a beautiful world it was, and how wonderful it was that they should have found each other, seeing tha...”

“There is nothing more luxurious than eating while you readunless it be reading while you eat. Amabel did both: they are not the same thing, as you will see if you think the matter over.”

“I don't agree with you in the least," said Temple "about marriage, I mean. A man ought to want to get married""To anybody? Without its being anybody in particular?""Yes," said Temple stoutly. "If h...”

“Robert explained how much simpler it was to pay money for things than to exchange them as the people were doing in the market. Later on the soldier gave the coins to his captain, who, later still, ...”

“It wouldn't do to go mixing up the present and the past, and cutting bits out of one to fit into the other.”

“She had been to her Great-Aunt Willoughbys before, and she knew exactly what to expect. She would be asked about her lessons, and how many marks she had, and whether she had been a good girl. I can...”

“It's an odd thing- the softer and more easily hurt a woman is the better she can screw herself up to do what has to be done.”

“Boys and girls are only little men and women. And WE are much harder and hardier than they are--" (Peter liked the "we." Perhaps the Doctor had known he would.)--"and much stronger, and things that...”

“There are brown eyes in the world, after all, as well as blue, and one pair of brown that meant heaven to me as the blue had never done”

“Trying not to believe things when in your heart you are almost sure they are true, is as bad for the temper as anything I know.”

“Grown-up people find it difficult to believe really wonderful things, unless they have what they call proof. But children will believe almost anything, and grown-ups know this. That is why they tel...”

“Gerald's look assured her that he and the others would be as near angels as children could be without ceasing to be human.”

“There was a pleasant party of barge people round the fire. You might not have thought it pleasant, but they did; for they were all friends or acquaintances, and they liked the same sort of things, ...”

“This shows you that even mistakes are sometimes valuable, so do not be hard on grown-up people if they are wrong sometimes.”

“For really there is nothing like wings for getting you into trouble. But, on the other hand, if you are in trouble, there is nothing like wings for getting you out of it.”

“Perhaps there's given up being magic because people didn't believe in it any more.”

“I'll tell you something," said Francis,urgent with shoe lace, "if we keep on saying things weren't when we know perfectly well they were, we shall soon dish up any sort of chance of magic we may ev...”

“I don't understand," says Gerald, alone in his third- class carriage, "how railway trains and magic can go on at the same time."And yet they do.”

“It's not respectable,' she said. And when people say that, it's no useanyone's saying anything.”

“How many miles to Babylon?Three score and ten!Can I get there by candle light?Yes, and back again?”