Quotes from Frances Hodgson Burnett

That afternoon the whole world seemed to devote itself to being perfect and radiantly beautiful and kind to one boy.

She did not care very much for other little girls, but if she had plenty of books she could console herself. She liked books more than anything else, and was, in fact, always inventing stories of beautiful things and telling them to herself.

You see, now that trials have come, they have shown that I am NOT a nice child. I was afraid they would. Perhaps... that is what they were sent for... I suppose there MIGHT be good in things, even if we don't see it.

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

and her mother had been a great beauty who cared only to go to parties and amuse herself with gay parties.

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

If you tell stories, you like nothing so much as to tell them to people who want to listen.

When Mary Lennox was sent to Misselthwaite Manor to live with her uncle everybody said she was the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen. It was true too . . . she was as tyrannical and selfish a little pig as ever lived.

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?

It was the sweetest, most mysterious-looking place any one could imagine. The high walls which shut it in were covered with the leafless stems of climbing roses which were so thick that they were matted together.

It made her think that it was curious how much nicer a person looked when he smiled.

But only be good, dear, only be brave, only be kind and true always, and then you will never hurt any one, so long as you live, and you may help many, and the big world may be better because my little child was born. And that is best of all, Ceddie, — it is better than everything else, that the world should be a little better because a man has lived — even ever so little better, dearest.

If you fill your mind with a beautiful thought, there will be no room in it for an ugly one. - King Amor

It is the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sunshine, and things pushing up and working under the earth

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.

You learn things by saying them over and over and thinking about them until they stay in your mind forever and I think it will be the same with Magic. If you keep calling it to come to you and help you it will get to be part of you and it will stay and do things.

The worst thing never quite comes.

Never did she find anything so difficult as to keep herself from losing her temper when she was suddenly disturbed while absorbed in a book. People who are fond of books know the feeling of irritation which sweeps over them at such a moment. The temptation to be unreasonable and snappish is one not easy to manage

At first people refuse to believe that a strange new thing can be done, then they begin to hope it can be done, then they see it can be done—then it is done and all the world wonders why it was not done centuries ago.

Sara...looked long and hard at his face. 'Are you learning me by heart, little Sara?' he said... 'No,' she answered. 'I know you by heart. You are inside my heart.

Neither do I -- to speak truth. But I suppose there might be good in things, even if we don't see it.

I am sure there is Magic in everything, only we have not sense enough to get hold of it and make it do things

Trataré de descubrir qué significa para mi la magia pues creo que hay magia en todo lo que nos rodea.

At first people refuse to believe that a strange new thing can be done, then they begin to hope it can be done, then they see it can be done—then it is done