W. C. Cole Quotations

Peter Pan is a book written by British novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie (1860–1937). Originally titled Peter Pan and Wendy, it was an adaptation of a stage play about the same characters. It is a story of a mischievous little boy who refuses to grow up. Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood adventuring on the small island of Neverland as leader of his gang, the Lost Boys.

Chapter 1-5

Two is the beginning of the end.
- Ch. 1 : Peter Breaks Through

He got all of her, except the innermost box and the kiss. He never knew about the box, and in time he gave up trying for the kiss.
- Ch. 1 : Peter Breaks Through

The many gentlemen who had been boys when she was a girl discovered simultaneously that they loved her, and they all ran to her house to propose to her except Mr. Darling, who took a cab and nipped in first, and so he got her.
- Ch. 1 : Peter Breaks Through

... but at last Wendy just got through, with mumps reduced to twelve six, and the two kinds of measles treated as one.
- Ch. 1 : Peter Breaks Through

As they were poor, owing to the amount of milk the children drank, this nurse was a prim Newfoundland dog, called Nana, who belonged to no one in particular until the Darlings engaged her.
- Ch. 1 : Peter Breaks Through

John’s, for instance, had a lagoon with flamingoes flying over it at which John was shooting, while Michael, who was very small, had a flamingo with lagoons flying over it.
- Ch. 1 : Peter Breaks Through

For instance, they may remember to mention, a week after the even happened, that when they were in the wood they met their dead father and had a game with him.
- Ch. 1 : Peter Breaks Through

She had found her two older children playing at being herself and father on the occasion of Wendy’s birth.
- Ch. 2 : The Shadow : The Shadow

I warn you of this, mother, that unless this tie is round my neck we don’t’ go out to dinner to-night, an dif I don’t go out to dinner to-night, I will never go to the office again, and if I don’t go to the office again, you and I stare, and our children will be flung into the streets.
- Ch. 2 : The Shadow

‘That is not the point,’ he retorted. ‘The point is, that there is more in my glass than in Michael’s spoon.’ His proud heart was nearly bursting. ‘And it isn’t fair; I would say it though it were with my last breath; it isn’t fair.’
- Ch. 2 : The Shadow

‘What’s your name?’ he asked.
‘Wendy Moira Angela Darling,’ she replied with some satisfaction. ‘What is your name?’
‘Peter Pan.’
She was already sure that he must be Peter, but it did seem a comparatively short name.
‘Is that all?’
‘Yes,’ he said rather sharply. He felt for the first time that it was a shortish name.
‘I’m so sorry,’ said Wendy Moira Angela.
‘It doesn’t matter,’ Peter gulped.
She asked where he lived.
‘Second to the right,’ said Peter, ‘and then straight on till morning.’
‘What a funny address!’
Peter had a sinking feeling. For the first time he felt that perhaps it was a funny address.
“A moment after the fairy’s entrance the window was blow open by the breathing of the little stars, and Peter dropped in.”
- Ch. 3 : Come Away, Come Away!

She was in a jug for the moment, and liking it extremely; she had never been in a jug before
- Ch. 3 : Come Away, Come Away!

‘And you could darn our clothes, and make pockets for us. None of us has any pockets.’
- Ch. 3 : Come Away, Come Away!

Chapter 6-10

‘I did it,’ he [Tootles] said, reflecting. ‘When ladies used to come to me in dreams, I said, ‘Pretty mother, pretty mother.’ But when at least she really came, I shot her.’
- Ch. 6 : The Little House

The difference between him and the other boys at such a time was that they knew it was make-believe; while to him make-believe and true were exactly the same thing. This sometimes troubled them, as when they had to make-believe that they had had their dinners.
- Ch. 6 : The Little House

When she [Wendy] sat down to a basketful of their stockings, every heel with a hole in it, she would fling up her arms and exclaim, ‘Oh dear, I am sure I sometimes think spinsters are to be envied.’
- Ch. 7 : The Home Under the Ground

‘Oh dear, oh dear,’ cried Wendy, ‘I’m sure I sometimes think that spinsters are to be envied.'
- Ch. 7 : The Home Under the Ground

As time wore on did she think much about the beloved parents she had left behind her?...Wendy did not really worry about her father and mother; she was absolutely confident that they would always keep the window open for her to fly back by, and this gave her complete ease of mind. What did disturb her at times was that John remembered his parents vaguely only, as people he had once known, while Michael was quite willing to believe that she was really his mother. These things scared her a little, and nobly anxious to do her duty, she tried to fix the old life in their minds by setting them examination papers on it, as like as possible to the ones she used to do at school…The questions were all written in the past tense. What was the colour of Mother’s eyes, and so on. Wendy, you see, had been forgetting too.
- Ch. 7 : The Home Under the Ground

For one thing he [Peter] despised all mothers except Wendy, and for another he was the only boy on the island who could neither write nor spell; not the smallest word. He was above all that sort of thing.
- Ch. 7 : The Home Under the Ground

He [Peter] was less sorry than Wendy for Tiger Lily: it was two against one that angered him, and he meant to save her.
- Ch. 8 : The Mermaids' Lagoon

‘What’s a mother?’ asked the ignorant Smee.
- Ch. 8 : The Mermaids' Lagoon

‘Captain,’ said Smee, ‘could we not kidnap these boys’ mother and make her out mother?’
‘It is a princely scheme,’ cried Hook, and at once it took practical shape in his great brain. ‘We will seize the children and carry them to the boat: the boys we will make walk the plank, and Wendy shall be our mother.’
- Ch. 8 : The Mermaids' Lagoon

‘A codfish!’ Hook echoed blankly, and it was then, but not till then, that his proud spirit broke. He saw his men draw back from him.
‘Have we been captained all this time by a codfish!’ they muttered. ‘It is lowering to our pride.’
They were his dogs snapping at him, but, tragic figure though he had become, he scarcely heeded him. Against such fearful evidence it was not their belief in him that he needed, it was his own. He felt his ego slipping from him.’
- Ch. 8 : The Mermaids' Lagoon

Peter was alone on the lagoon.
The rock was very small now; soon it would be submerged. Pale rays of light tiptoed across the waters; and by and by there was to be heard a sound at once the most musical and the most melancholy in the world: the mermaids calling to the moon.
Peter was not quite like other boys; but he was afraid at last. A tremor ran through him, like a shudder passing over the sea; but on the sea one shudder follows another till there are hundreds of them, and Peter felt just the one. Next moment he was standing erect on the rock again, with that smile on his face and a drum beating within him. It was saying, "To die will be an awfully big adventure."
- Ch. 8 : The Mermaids' Lagoon; Peter, expecting to to die while trapped on Marooner's Rock, after insisting that Wendy escape on Michael's kite, which could only support one of them, a scene originally added in the 1905 production of the play. This has also sometimes been quoted as "To die would be an awfully great adventure", "To die will be a great adventure", and "To die would be a great adventure."

Unplaced by chapter and sequence

“Her [Mrs. Darling’s] romantic mind was like the tiny boxes, one within the other…however many you discover there is always one more; and her sweet mocking mouth had one kiss on it that Wendy could never get, though there it was, perfectly conspicuous in the right-hand corner.” – pg. 1

“It was a girl called Tinker Bell exquisitely gowned in a skeleton leaf, cut low and square, through which her figure could be seen to the best advantage.” – pg. 19

“She made herself rather cheap by inclining her face toward him, but he merely dropped an acorn button into her hand, so she slowly returned her face to where it had been before, and said nicely that she would wear his kiss on the chain round her neck.” – pg. 23

“‘You see, Wendy, when the first baby laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies.’” – pg. 24

“‘Wendy, Wendy, when you are sleeping in your silly bed you might be flying about with me saying funny things to the stars.’” – pg. 27

“‘And you could darn our clothes, and make pockets for us. None of us has any pockets.’” – pg. 28

‘For Wendy?’ John said, aghast. ‘Why, she is only a girl!’
‘That,’ explained Curly, ‘is why we are her servants.’ – pg. 58

“‘Ay, ay,’ said Slightly at once, and disappeared, scratching his head. He knew Peter must be obeyed, and he returned in a moment, wearing John’s hat and looking solemn.” – pg. 58

“John rubbed his eyes. ‘Then I shall get up,’ he said. Of course, he was on the floor already. ‘Hallo’, he said, ‘I am up!’”.

– pg. 58

“‘That doesn’t matter,’ said Peter, as if he were the only person present who knew all about it, though he was really the one who knew least. ‘What we need is just a nice motherly person.’” – pg. 61

“The little house was so pleased to have such a capital chimney that, as if to say thank you, smoke immediately began to come out of the hat. – pg. 61

“‘Very well,’ she said. ‘I will do my best. Come inside at once, you naughty children; I am sure your feet are damp. And before I put you to bed I have just time to finish the story of Cinderella.’” – pg. 62

“…for unless your tree fitted you it was difficult to go up and down, and no two of the boys were quite the same size. Once you fitted, you drew in your breath at the top, and down you went at exactly the right speed, while to ascend you drew in and let our alternately, and so wriggled up. Off course, when you have mastered the action you are able to do these things without thinking of them, and then nothing can be more graceful.” – pg. 63

“If you shut your eyes and are a lucky one, you may see at times a shapeless pool of lovely pale colours suspended in the darkness; then if you squeeze your eyes tighter, the pool begins to take shape, and the colours become so vivid that with another squeeze they must go on fire. But just before they go on fire you see the lagoon.” – pg. 70

“The bubbles of many colours made in randow water they treat as balls, hitting them gaily fro one to another with their tails, and trying to keep them in the rainbow till they burst.” – pg. 71

Quick as thought he snatched a knife from Hook’s belt and was about to drive it home, when he saw that he was higher up the rock than his foe. It would not have been fighting fair. He gave the pirate a hand to help him up.
It was then that Hook bit him.
Not the pain of this but its unfairness was what dazed Peter. It made him quite helpless. – pg. 79

“Peter was not quite like other boys; but he was afraid at last…Next moment he was standing erect on the rock again, with that smile on his face and a drum beating within him. It was saying, ‘To die will be an awfully big adventure.’” – pg. 82

“You dunderheaded little jay,” she screamed, ‘why don’t you do as I tell you?”
Peter felt that she was calling him names, and at a venture he retorted hotly:
“So are you!”
The rather curiously they both snapped out the same remark.
“Shut up!”
“Shut up!” – pg. 84

“At the same moment the bird fluttered down upon the hat and once more sat snugly on her eggs. She drifted in one direction, and he was borne off in another, both cheering...the hat was such a great success that she abandoned the nest…As we shall not see her again, it may be worth mentioning here that all Never birds now build in that shape of nest, with a broad brim on which the youngsters take an airing,” – pg. 85

“Every boy had adventures to tell; but perhaps the biggest adventure of all was that they were several hours late for bed.” – pg. 86

“They [the redskins] called Peter the Great White Father, prostrating themselves before him; and he liked this tremendously, so that it was not really good for him.” – pg. 87

“The way you got the time on the island was to find the crocodile, and then stay near him till the clock struck.” – pg. 88

“There was a fixed rule that they must never hit back at meals, but should refer the matter of dispute to Wendy by raising the right arm politely and saying ‘I complain of so-and-so’; but what usually happened was that they forgot to do this or did it too much.” – pg. 88

“O Wendy,” cried Tootles, “was one of the lost children called Tootles?”
“Yes, he was.”
“I am in a story. Hurrah, I am in a story, Nibs.” – pg. 95

“Let us now,” said Wendy, “bracing herself up for her finest effort, “take a peep into the future”; and they all gave themselves the twist that makes peeps into the future easier. – pg. 96

“You see,” Wendy said complacently, “our heroine knew that the mother would always leave the window open for her children to fly back by; so they stayed away for years and had a lovely time.” – pg. 96

…he was so full of wrath against grown-ups, who, as usual, were spoiling everything, that as soon as he got inside his tree he breathed intentionally quick short breaths at the rate of about five to a second. He did this because there is a saying in the Neverland that, every time you breathe, a grown-up dies; and Peter was killing them off vindictively as fast as possible. – pg. 98

“Tink,” he rapped out, “if you don’t get up and dress at once I will open the curtains, and then we shall all see you in your negligee.” – pg. 99

She loved to give them medicine, and undoubtedly gave them too much. Of course it was only water, but it was out of a bottle, and she always shook the bottle and counted the drops, which gave it a certain medicinal quality. – pg. 100

It is no part of ours to describe what was a massacre rather than a fight. Thus perished many of the flower of the Piccaninny tribe. – pg. 104

Quoternity