E Nesbit Quotes

I never read prefaces, and it is not much good writing things just for people to skip. I wonder other authors have never thought of this.
E Nesbit
What a night it was! The jagged masses of heavy dark cloud were rolling at intervals from horizon to horizon, and thin white wreaths covered the stars. Through all the rush of the cloud river the moon swam, breasting the waves and disappearing again in the darkness.I walked up and down, drinking in the beauty of the quiet earth and the changing sky. The night was absolutely silent. Nothing seemed to be abroad. There was no scurrying of rabbits, or twitter of the half-asleep birds. And though the clouds went sailing across the sky, the wind that drove them never came low enough to rustle the dead leaves in the woodland paths. Across the meadows I could see the church tower standing out black and grey against the sky. ("Man Size In Marble")
E Nesbit
It's not respectable,' she said. And when people say that, it's no useanyone's saying anything.
E Nesbit
We haven't really got anything worth having for our wishes.''We've had things happening,' said Robert; 'that's always something.''It's not enough, unless they're the right things,' said Cyril firmly.
E Nesbit
How many miles to Babylon?Three score and ten!Can I get there by candle light?Yes, and back again?
E Nesbit
How many miles to Babylon?Three score and ten!Can I get there by candle light?Yes, and back again!
E Nesbit
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.
E Nesbit
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 ever have had. When do you find people in books going on like that? They just say 'This is magic!' and behave as if it was. They don't go pretending they're not sure. Why, no magic would stand it."Book: Wet Magic, Chapter 2
E Nesbit
Perhaps there's given up being magic because people didn't believe in it any more.
E Nesbit
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.
E Nesbit
This shows you that even mistakes are sometimes valuable, so do not be hard on grown-up people if they are wrong sometimes.
E Nesbit
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, and talked the same sort of talk. This is the real secret of pleasant society.
E Nesbit
Gerald's look assured her that he and the others would be as near angels as children could be without ceasing to be human.
E Nesbit
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 tell you that the earth is round like an orange, when you can see perfectly well that it is flat and lumpy; and why they say that the earth goes round the sun, when you can see for yourself any day that the sun gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night like a good sun as it is, and the earth knows its place, and lies as still as a mouse. Yet I daresay you believe all that about the earth and the sun, and if so you will find it quite easy to believe that before Anthea and Cyril and the others had been a week in the country they had found a fairy.
E Nesbit
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.
E Nesbit
She had been to her Great-Aunt Willoughby’s 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’t think why grownup people don’t see how impertinent these questions are. Suppose you were to answer:“I’m the top of my class, auntie, thank you, and I am very good. And now let us have a little talk about you, aunt, dear. How much money have you got, and have you been scolding the servants again, or have you tried to be good and patient, as a properly brought up aunt should be, eh, dear?”Try this method with one of your aunts next time she begins asking you questions, and write and tell me what she says.
E Nesbit
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, showed them to Pharaoh, who of course kept them and was much struck with the idea. That was really how coins first came to be used in Egypt. You will not believe this, I daresay, but really, if you believe the rest of the story, I don't see why you shouldn't believe this as well.
E Nesbit
It wouldn't do to go mixing up the present and the past, and cutting bits out of one to fit into the other.
E Nesbit
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 he gets to thirty without wanting to marry any one in particular, he ought to look about till he finds some one he does want. It's the right and proper thing to marry and have kiddies.
E Nesbit
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
E Nesbit
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 hurt THEM don't hurt US. You know you mustn't hit a girl--""I should think not, indeed," muttered Peter, indignantly."Not even if she's your own sister. That's because girls are so much softer and weaker than we are; they have to be, you know," he added, "because if they weren't, it wouldn't be nice for the babies. And that's why all the animals are so good to the mother animals. They never fight them, you know.""I know," said Peter, interested; "two buck rabbits will fight all day if you let them, but they won't hurt a doe.""No; and quite wild beasts--lions and elephants--they're immensely gentle with the female beasts. And we've got to be, too.""I see," said Peter."And their hearts are soft, too," the Doctor went on, "and things that we shouldn't think anything of hurt them dreadfully. So that a man has to be very careful, not only of his fists, but of his words. They're awfully brave, you know," he went on. "Think of Bobbie waiting alone in the tunnel with that poor chap. 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. I've seen some brave women-- your Mother's one," he ended abruptly."Yes," said Peter."Well, that's all. Excuse my mentioning it. But nobody knows everything without being told. And you see what I mean, don't you?
E Nesbit
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.
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 that the world is not only beautiful but rather large.
E Nesbit
There is nothing more luxurious than eating while you read—unless 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.
E Nesbit