Frances Hodgson Burnett Quotes

Their eyes met with a singular directness of gaze. Between them a spark passed which was not afterwards to be extinguished, though neither of them knew the moment of its kindling.

Things happen to people by accident.

we do not believe until we want a thing and feel that we shall die if 'tis not granted to us, and then we kneel and kneel and believe, because we must have someone to ask help from.

So long as I know what's expected of me, I can manage.

People never like me and I never like people

It's so different to be a sparrow. But nobody asked this rat if he wanted to be a rat when he was made. Nobody said, 'Wouldn't you rather be a sparrow?

Soldiers don't complain...I am not going to do it; I will pretend this is part of a war.

Are you learning me by heart, little Sara?" he said, stroking her hair. "No," she answered. "I know you by heart. You are inside my heart.

If I go on talking and talking...and telling you things about pretending, I shall bear it better. You don't forget, but you bear it better.

Perhaps to be able to learn things quickly isn't everything. To be kind is worth a great deal to other people...Lots of clever people have done harm and have been wicked.

People never like me and I never like people," she thought. "And I never can talk as the Crawford children could. They were always talking and laughing and making noises.

There is naught a man or woman can not learn who hath the wit.

But I suppose there might be good in things, even if we don't see it.

Children's as good as 'rithmetic to set you findin' out things.

As long as one has a garden, one has a future. As long as one has a future, one is alive.

Whatever comes cannot alter one thing.

Never thee stop believin' in th' Big Good Thing an' knowin' th' world's full of it - and call it what tha' likes. Tha' wert singin' to it when I come into t' garden.

... justice is mercy's highest self.

It's so easy that when you begin you can't stop. You just go on and on doing it always.

Thoughts -- just mere thoughts -- are as powerful as electric batteries -- as good for one as sunlight is, or as bad for one as poison.

They're a pair of young Satans.

The mere fact that Lottie had come and gone away again made things seem a little worse-just as perhaps prisoners feel a little more desolate after visitors come and go, leaving them behind.

I am sure there is Magic in everything, only we have not sence enough to get hold of it and make it do things for us - like electricity and horses and steam.

You said th' Magic was in my back. Th' doctor calls it rheumatics.

Why, we are just the same - I am only a little girl like you. It's just an accident that I am not you, and you are not me!

Nothing in the world is so strong as a kind heart

We trifle with France and labour with Germany, we sentimentalize over Italy and ecstacise over Spain- but England we love.

There is nothing so nice as supposing. It's almost like being a fairy. If you suppose anything hard enough it seems as if it were real.

Dr. Warren was of the mental build of the man whose life would be interesting and full of outlook if it were spent on a desert island or in the Bastille.

you are going to be sent home....I 'm glad of it but where's HOME ?

It's a lonely place. Sometimes it's the loneliest place in the world.

I know what it is to be hungry, and it is very hard when one cannot even pretend it away. -Sara

We do not believe until we want a thing and feel that we shall die if it is not granted to us and then we kneel and believe.

It is astonishing how short a time it takes for very wonderful things to happen.

Is the spring coming?" he said. "What is it like?"..."It is the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sunshine...

I wish I was friends with things, " he said at last, "but I'm not. I never had anything to be friends with, and I can't bear people.