This is why I shall not tell you in this story about all the days when nothing happened. You will not catch me saying, 'thus the sad days passed slowly by'--or 'the years rolled on their weary course'--or 'time went on'--because it is silly; of course time goes on--whether you say so or not. So I shall just tell you the nice, interesting parts--and in between you will understand that we had our meals and got up and went to bed, and dull things like that.

E. Nesbit

Categorized in : Years Silly Nice

When you are young so many things are difficult to believe, and yet the dullest people will tell you that they are true--such things, for instance, as that the earth goes round the sun, and that it is not flat but round. But the things that seem really likely, like fairy-tales and magic, are, so say the grown-ups, not true at all. Yet they are so easy to believe, especially when you see them happening.

magic believe people

It is a curious thing that people only ask if you are enjoying yo... by E. Nesbit

It is a curious thing that people only ask if you are enjoying yourself when you aren't.

curious enjoy people

There is a curtain, thin as gossamer, clear as glass, strong as iron, that hangs forever between the world of magic and the world that seems to us to be real.

glasses strong real

There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same... by E. Nesbit

There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books.

book

Time and space are only forms of thought. by E. Nesbit

Time and space are only forms of thought.

time-and-space form space

Ladylike is the beastliest word there is, I think. If a girl isn't a lady, it isn't worth while to be only like one, she'd better let it alone and be a free and happy bounder.

girl ifs thinking

People think six is a great many, when it's children. ...they don't mind six pairs of boots, or six pounds of apples, or six oranges, especially in equations, but they seem to think that you ought not to have five brothers and sisters.

brother children thinking

Time is, as you are probably aware, merely a convenient fiction.... by E. Nesbit

Time is, as you are probably aware, merely a convenient fiction. There is no such thing as time.

convenient time fiction

I think everyone in the world is friends if you can only get them to see you don't want to be un-friends.

want world thinking

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.

reading matter thinking

everything has an end, and you get to it if you only keep on. by E. Nesbit

everything has an end, and you get to it if you only keep on.

ends ifs

It is curious that nearly all the great fortunes are made by turning beautiful things into ugly ones. Making beauty out of ugliness is very ill-paid work.

ugly curious beautiful

Life will give you what you ask of here if only you ask long enou... by E. Nesbit

Life will give you what you ask of here if only you ask long enough and plainly enough.

enough giving long

The ones as big as sheep were easier to avoid, because you could see them coming, but when they flew in at the window and curled up under your eiderdown, and you did not find them till you went to bed, it was always a shock. The ones this size did not eat people, only lettuces, but they always scorched the sheets and pillowcases dreadfully.

dragons sheep people

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

eye blue heaven

It is wonderful how quickly you get used to things, even the most... by E. Nesbit

It is wonderful how quickly you get used to things, even the most astonishing.

used change wonderful

Then suddenly Jack was a changed boy. Something wonderful had happened to him, and it had made him different. It sometimes happened to people that they see or hear something quite wonderful and then they are never altogether the same again.

different boys people

Also she had the power of silent sympathy. That sounds rather dull, I know, but it's not so dull as it sounds. It just means that a person is able to know that you are unhappy, and to love you extra on that account, without bothering you by telling you all the time how sorry she is for you.

sorry love-you mean

It is all very wonderful and mysterious, as all life is apt to be if you go a little below the crust, and are not content just to read newspapers and go by the Tube Railway, and buy your clothes ready-made, and think nothing can be true unless it is uninteresting.

clothes littles thinking

It is not, Dear, because I am alone, For I am lonelier when the rest are near, But that my place against your heart has grown Too dear to dream of when you are not here.

sad dream heart