Boys and girls are only little men and women. And WE are much harder and hardier than they are--" (Peter liked the "we." Perhaps the Doctor had known he would.)--"and much stronger, and things that hurt THEM don't hurt US. You know you mustn't hit a girl--""I should think not, indeed," muttered Peter, indignantly." Not even if she's your own sister. That's because girls are so much softer and weaker than we are; they have to be, you know," he added, "because if they weren't, it wouldn't be nice for the babies. And that's why all the animals are so good to the mother animals. They never fight them, you know."" I know," said Peter, interested; "two buck rabbits will fight all day if you let them, but they won't hurt a doe."" No; and quite wild beasts--lions and elephants--they're immensely gentle with the female beasts. And we've got to be, too."" I see," said Peter." And their hearts are soft, too," the Doctor went on, "and things that we shouldn't think anything of hurt them dreadfully. So that a man has to be very careful, not only of his fists, but of his words. They're awfully brave, you know," he went on. "Think of Bobbie waiting alone in the tunnel with that poor chap. It's an odd thing- -the softer and more easily hurt a woman is the better she can screw herself up to do what HAS to be done. I've seen some brave women-- your Mother's one," he ended abruptly." Yes," said Peter." Well, that's all. Excuse my mentioning it. But nobody knows everything without being told. And you see what I mean, don't you?

— E. Nesbit

For really there is nothing like wings for getting you into trouble. But, on the other hand, if you are in trouble, there is nothing like wings for getting you out of it.

— E. Nesbit

Gerald's look assured her that he and the others would be as near angels as children could be without ceasing to be human.

— E. Nesbit

Grown-up people find it difficult to believe really wonderful things, unless they have what they call proof. But children will believe almost anything, and grown-ups know this. That is why they tell you that the earth is round like an orange, when you can see perfectly well that it is flat and lumpy; and why they say that the earth goes round the sun, when you can see for yourself any day that the sun gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night like a good sun as it is, and the earth knows its place, and lies as still as a mouse. Yet I daresay you believe all that about the earth and the sun, and if so you will find it quite easy to believe that before Anthem and Cyril and the others had been a week in the country they had found a fairy.

— E. Nesbit

How many miles to Babylon? Three score and ten! Can I get there by candlelight? Yes, and back again!

— E. Nesbit

How many miles to Babylon? Three score and ten! Can I get there by candlelight? Yes, and back again?

— E. Nesbit

I don't agree with you in the least," said Temple— "about marriage, I mean. A man ought to want to get married—""To anybody? Without its being anybody in particular?"" Yes," said Temple stoutly. "If he gets to thirty without wanting to marry any one in particular, he ought to look about till he finds someone he does want. It's the right and proper thing to marry and have kiddies.

— E. Nesbit

I don't understand," says Gerald, alone in his third-class carriage, "how railway trains and magic can go on at the same time." And yet they do.

— E. Nesbit

I'll tell you something," said Francis, urgent with shoelace, "if we keep on saying things weren't when we know perfectly well they were, we shall soon dish up any sort of chance of magic we may ever have had. When do you find people in books going on like that? They just say 'This is magic!' and behave as if it was. They don't go pretending they're not sure. Why, no magic would stand it." Book: Wet Magic, Chapter 2

— E. Nesbit

I never read prefaces, and it is not much good writing things just for people to skip. I wonder other authors have never thought of this.

— E. Nesbit