The brainchild of Scottish writer J. M. Barrie, Peter Pan debuted as a play in London before being published as a book in 1911. Originally titled Peter and Wendy, this literary gem has delighted children and adults alike for more than 100 years. Barrie tells the story of John, Michael, and Wendy Darling and what happens when the enigmatic Peter Pan visits their nursery. Peter and his devoted fairy, Tinker Bell, whisk the children away to the magical and mysterious Neverland. This mystical place is home to mermaids, pirates, the lost boys, and the fearsome Captain Hook. What follows is a thrilling tale of unimaginable adventures. Peter Pan has gone on to inspire a popular animated Disney film, a Magic Kingdom theme park ride, and a Tony Award-winning Broadway musical, which launched a new national tour, with a revised book, in 2024.
Within an enchanting story for children, Peter Pan explores themes that continue to resonate with fans of all ages. Here are 50+ memorable quotes from Peter Pan on magic, adventure, love, and growing up.
On magic
"Do you believe in fairies? If you believe, clap your hands!"
"A moment after the fairy's entrance the window was blown open by the breathing of the little stars, and Peter dropped in."
"All the world is made of faith, and trust, and pixie dust."
"I'll think of a mermaid lagoon, underneath a magic moon."
"Fairies don't live long, but they are so little that a short time seems a good while to them."
"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."
“Stars are beautiful, but they may not take part in anything, they must just look on forever.”
"It may have been quixotic, but it was magnificent."
"The loveliest tinkle of golden bells answered him. It is the fairy language."
"Feeling that Peter was on his way back, the Neverland had again woke into life."
"On the whole the Neverlands have a family resemblance, and if they stood still in a row you could say of them that they had each other's nose, and so forth."
"Unfortunately she could not fly as slowly as they, and so she had to go round and round them n a circle in which they moved as if in a halo."
"Dreams do come true, if only we wish hard enough."
On adventure
"Would you like an adventure now, or shall we have our tea first?"
"Wendy, Wendy, when you are sleeping in your silly bed you might be flying about with me saying funny things to the stars."
"Second star to the right and straight on 'til morning."
"I'll teach you how to jump on the wind's back, and then away we go."
“Of all the delectable islands the Neverland is the snuggest and the most compact.”
"All are keeping a sharp look-out in front, but none suspects that the danger may be creeping up from behind."
"Children have the strangest adventures without being troubled by them."
"It is not in doing what you like, but in liking what you do that is the secret of happiness."
"I'm youth, I'm joy, I'm a little bird that has broken out of the egg."
"When there's a smile in your heart, there's no better time to start."
"Think of all the joy you'll find when you leave the world behind you and bid your cares goodbye."
"To live will be an awfully big adventure."
On love
"Absence makes the heart grow fonder…or forgetful."
"Just always be waiting for me."
"It is the nightly custom of every good mother after her children are asleep to rummage in their minds and put things straight for the next morning, repacking into their proper places the many articles that have wandered during the day."
"She also said she would give him a kiss if he liked, but Peter did not know what she meant, and he held out his hand expectantly."
“Wendy, one girl is more use than twenty boys.”
"You know you can't be my fairy, Tink, because I am a gentleman and you are a lady."
"I taught you to fight and to fly. What more could there be?"
"I never expected that you could have a broken heart and love it too, so much that it does not seem broken at all."
"After you have been unfair to him he will love you again, but he will never afterward be quite the same boy."
"There are many different kinds of bravery. There's the bravery of thinking of others before one's self.”
"You mean more to me than anyone in this whole world."
"I'll hold you in my heart until I can hold you in my arms."
"Wait for me somewhere between reality and all we've ever dreamed."
On growing up
"All children, except one, grow up."
"You always know after you are two. Two is the beginning of the end.”
“Little boys should never be sent to bed. They always wake up a day older.”
"You need not be sorry for her. She was one of the kind that likes to grow up. In the end she grew up of her own free will a day quicker than the other girls."
"I don't want to go to school and learn solemn things."
"When they met again Wendy was a married woman, and Peter was no more to her than a little dust in the box in which she had kept her toys."
"In time they could not even fly after their hats. Want of practice, they called it; but what it really meant was that they no longer believed."
“The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease for ever to be able to do it.”
"Never say goodbye because goodbye means going away and going away means forgetting."
"Never is an awfully long time."
"I suppose it's like the ticking crocodile, isn't it? Time is chasing after all of us."
"Once you're grown up you can't come back."
“When Margaret grows up she will have a daughter, who is to be Peter's mother in turn; and so it will go on, so long as children are gay and innocent and heartless."
"All of this has happened before, and it will all happen again."
