E. Nesbit Quotes

“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.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

“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”

“It's full of worth and goodness too with manly kindness blent It's worth a million dollars and it doesn't cost a cent.”

“All to myself I think of you Think of the things we used to do Think of the things we used to say Think of each happy bygone day Sometimes I sigh and sometimes I smile But I keep each olden golden while All to myself.”

“Your flag and my flag And how it flies today In your land and my land And half a world away! Rose-red and blood-reed The stripes forever gleam Snow-white and soul-white - The good forefathers' dream Sky-blue and true-blue with stars to gleam aright - The gloried guidon of the day a shelter through the night.”

“Bean felt a rush of sweet nostalgia for the woman who had introduced us to E. Nesbit and Edward Eager and Laura Ingalls Wilder...”

“We don’t sleep to sleep, dammit, any more than we eat to eat . We sleep to dream. We’re amphibians. We live in two elements and we need both." Edward Nesbit”