J. M. Barrie (1860–1937,) properly Sir James Matthew Barrie, was a Scottish novelist and dramatist. He is most famous as the creator of Peter Pan, a mischievous boy who does not want to grow up.
Born in Kirriemuir, Angus, Barrie graduated from Edinburgh University in 1882, then settled in London and became a regular contributor to the St James’s Gazette and British Weekly. He wrote a series of autobiographical prose works, including The Little Minister (1891; dramatized 1897.) From 1890, he wrote for the theatre and established his reputation with works like Walker London (1892) and The Admirable Crichton (1902.)
Based on the imaginative games Barrie played with the boisterous Llewellyn-Davies boys, whom he met in Kensington Gardens, Barrie created his phenomenally successful children’s story Peter Pan (1904,) which remains a favorite Christmas pantomime. He continued his excursions into a fairyland in later plays such as Dear Brutus (1917) and Mary Rose (1920.)
From 1930, Barrie was the chancellor of Edinburgh University. He bequeathed all the rights to Peter Pan to London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital. Accordingly, the hospital has received royalties every time a production of the play is put on.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by J. M. Barrie
I’m youth, I’m joy, I’m a little bird that has broken out of the egg.
—J. M. Barrie
Topics: One liners, Youth
Shall we make a new rule of life from tonight: always to try to be a little kinder than is necessary?
—J. M. Barrie
Topics: Kindness
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
Topics: Idleness, Dreams
We are all failures—at least, all the best of us are.
—J. M. Barrie
Topics: Failure
Failure is the path of least resistance.
—J. M. Barrie
Topics: Failure
Ambition is the last infirmity of noble minds.
—J. M. Barrie
Topics: Ambition, One liners
The secret of happiness is not in doing what one likes, but in liking what one does.
—J. M. Barrie
Topics: Happiness
His lordship may compel us to be equal upstairs, but there will never be equality in the servants hall.
—J. M. Barrie
Topics: Service, Servants
It is not in doing what you like, but in liking what you do that is the secret of happiness.
—J. M. Barrie
Topics: Happiness
Heaven for climate, Hell for company.
—J. M. Barrie
Topics: Heaven
Men’s second childhood begins when a woman gets a hold of him.
—J. M. Barrie
Topics: Men
Always be a little kinder than necessary.
—J. M. Barrie
Topics: Kindness, Compassion, Service
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”.
—J. M. Barrie
God gave us memory that we might have roses in December.
—J. M. Barrie
Topics: Memories, The Past, Memory
Oh, God, if I were sure I were to die tonight I would repent at once. it is the commonest prayer in all languages.
—J. M. Barrie
Topics: Prayer
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
Topics: Achievement, Success & Failure
The printing press is either the greatest blessing or the greatest curse of modern times, sometimes one forgets which it is.
—J. M. Barrie
Topics: Books, Reading
Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.
—J. M. Barrie
Topics: Giving, Kindness, Service, Encouragement, Joy
The best place a person can die, is where they die for others.
—J. M. Barrie
Topics: Dying, Death
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
Topics: Living, Life
We never understand how little we need in this world until we know the loss of it.
—J. M. Barrie
Topics: Understanding
The praise that comes from love does not make us vain, but more humble.
—J. M. Barrie
Topics: Praise
You have been warned against letting the golden hours slip by. Yes, but some of them are golden only because we let them slip by.
—J. M. Barrie
Every time a child says, “I don’t believe in fairies,” there is a fairy somewhere that falls down dead.
—J. M. Barrie
Topics: Belief
Growing up is such a barbarous business, full of inconvenience… and pimples.
—J. M. Barrie
Love is not blind; it is an extra eye, which shows us what is most worthy of regard.
—J. M. Barrie
Topics: Love
Temper is a weapon that we hold by the blade.
—J. M. Barrie
Topics: Weapon, Anger
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
Topics: The Past, Past
Dreams do come true, if we only wish hard enough, You can have anything in life if you will sacrifice everything else for it.
—J. M. Barrie
Topics: Desires, Desire, Dreams
You see, dear, it is not true that woman was made from man’s rib; she was really made from his funny bone.
—J. M. Barrie
Topics: Women
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