Enid Blyton: Mothers were much too sharp. They were like dogs. Buster...

The best way to treat obstacles is to use them as stepping-stones. Laugh at them, tread on them, and let them lead you to something better.

Enid Blyton

use stones laughing

You're trying to escape from your difficulties, and there never is any escape from difficulties, never. They have to be faced and fought.

Enid Blyton

difficulty trying

Leave something for someone but dont leave someone for something.

Enid Blyton

senior funny

Well, you know what grown-ups are,' said Dinah. 'They don't think the same way as we do. I expect when we grow up, we shall think like them - but let's hope we remember what it was like to think in the way children do, and understand the boys and the girls that are growing up when we're men and women.

Enid Blyton

growing-up girl children

Hatred is so much easier to win than love - and so much harder to get rid of.

Enid Blyton

easier hatred winning

If you can't look after something in your care, you have no right to keep it.

Enid Blyton

care ifs looks

The secret island had looked mysterious enough on the night they had seen it before - but now, swimming in the hot June haze, it seemed more enchanting than ever. As they drew near to it, and saw the willow trees that bent over the water-edge and heard the sharp call of moorhens that scuttled off, the children gazed in delight. Nothing but trees and birds and little wild animals. Oh, what a secret island, all for their very own, to live on and play on.

Enid Blyton

swimming animal children

Soon they were all sitting on the rocky ledge, which was still warm, watching the sun go down into the lake. It was the most beautiful evening, with the lake as blue as a cornflower and the sky flecked with rosy clouds. They held their hard-boiled eggs in one hand and a piece of bread and butter in the other, munching happily. There was a dish of salt for everyone to dip their eggs into. ‘I don’t know why, but the meals we have on picnics always taste so much nicer than the ones we have indoors,’ said George.

Enid Blyton

lakes clouds beautiful

I wonder where you got that idea from? I mean, the idea that it's feeble to change your mind once it's made up. That's a wrong idea, you know. Make up your mind about things, by all means - but if something happens to show that you are wrong, then it is feeble not to change your mind, Elizabeth. Only the strongest people have the pluck to change their minds, and say so, if they see they have been wrong in their ideas.

Enid Blyton

mean people ideas

I don't believe in things like that - fairies or brownies or magic or anything. It's old-fashioned.' 'Well, we must be jolly old-fashioned then,' said Bessie. 'Because we not only believe in the Faraway Tree and love our funny friends there, but we go to see them too - and we visit the lands at the top of the Tree as well!

Enid Blyton

land funny-friend believe

I do love the beginning of the summer hols,' said Julian. They always seem to stretch out ahead for ages and ages.' 'They go so nice and slowly at first,' said Anne, his little sister. 'Then they start to gallop.

Enid Blyton

little-sister nice summer

I think people make their own faces, as they grow.

Enid Blyton

faces people thinking

The little island seemed to float on the dark lake-waters. Trees grew on it, and a little hill rose in the middle of it. It was a mysterious island, lonely and beautiful. All the children stood and gazed at it, loving it and longing to go to it. It looked so secret - almost magic.

Enid Blyton

lonely running beautiful

When you're paid to do a job, it's better to give a few minutes more to it, than a few minutes less. That's one of the differences between doing a job honestly and doing it dishonestly! See?

Enid Blyton

differences jobs giving

It wasn't a bit of good fighting grown-ups. They could do exactly as they liked.

Enid Blyton

good-fighting bits fighting

I'm good at exploring roofs. You never know when that kind of thing comes in useful.

Enid Blyton

roof kind knows

Here Mr Potts come here you little idiot!

Enid Blyton

idiot littles

You are honest enough by nature to be able to see and judge your own self clearly - and that is a great thing. Never lose that honesty, Bobby - always be honest with yourself, know your own motives for what they are, good or bad, make your own decisions firmly and justly - and you will be a fine, strong character, of some real use in this muddled world of ours!

Enid Blyton

honesty strong real

We must have Christian ethics for our children, good and strong, but we must make them attractive, too, and it can be done.

Enid Blyton

strong christian children

I get over a hundred letters a day from all over the world, from children and parents, and it's a wonder I ever have time to write books, let alone speak!

Enid Blyton

writing book children

Mothers were much too sharp. They were like dogs. Buster always sensed when anything was out of the ordinary, and so did mothers. Mothers and dogs both had a kind of second sight that made them see into people's minds and know when anything unusual was going on.