"You don't believe me… Well I don't expect you to! I wouldn't myself unless I saw it with my own eyes. But I wish, I wish it would happen. I wish the ship would take us somewhere — anywhere!"

"Humphrey said in a funny little voice, "It's a dream. I'm dreaming it. You've all come into my dream!" "My dream!" said Sandy in the kind of voice that means to go on arguing. "It isn't a dream," Peter said happily. "It's happening. And it's real.""

"The children stood speechless, staring at the picture of their own ship. It was a faithful picture, the colours bright and the shape true."

"You've got to wish!"

"This is no time for anger … nor for any talk of punishment. First we must fight. And when we return in victory, then I shall deal justly with the traitors."

"It was just possible that the magic had run out, as Peter said. After all, you knew a lot less about magic than you did about an electric torch."

"And every one who know Peter and Sheila and Humphrey and Sandy when they were grown-up called them The Lucky Grants. So there does seem to be something in it after all."

"You have used it much … and you have used it well."

"Suddenly Peter knew what he must do. He must return the boat before he grew like the others. He must find the little dark shop and give back the flying-boat before it was too late."

"You have forgotten," said the old man. "And you will forget still more!" "I don't want to forget," cried Peter, "I don't want to!" The old man leaned over and touched Peter's forehead with his finger. It was a pleasant touch, cool and soothing. "Of course you must forget," he said kindly. "You must make room for all the new things you have to learn."

"They went further back in time, till it seemed the time-cloud would never lift. They walked in the hanging gardens of Babylon, they watched beside Leonidas in the pass of Thermopylae, they stood with Horatius, when he kept the bridge, and stepped beside Hannibal over the frozen Alps when he marched for Rome."

"It was all so wonderful and so magical that sometimes they got a little confused by their adventures, so that their memories were like painted patterns that some one has left out in the rain. And sometimes they began to wonder if it was really true — all of them except Peter, who had no doubts whatsoever."

"And then Peter began to wonder what would happen if he, too, grew like the others and didn't believe. His boat, is own little boat, would be neglected and forgotten. And the magic would work no longer — for when you no longer believe, then the magic stops."

"Whether all this really happened, not even Peter can say now. He had awakened after an unusually vivid dream to find the ship gone. And it was then, looking down into his empty hand, that he began to wonder whether the others were right. Perhaps there never had been a magic ship after all, perhaps nobody had ever promised a gift in exchange. Maybe. Maybe not. But whether the old man really gave them a gift or whether he didn't, all of them were happy and successful for the rest of their lives."

"I will not hide from you lad … that of all the tasks, yours is the most perilous. But all will go well if you be steadfast and not lose your wits. Now listen. When you have played your part, you must walk slowly away, and in the confusion — for confusion there will certainly be — you may well escape. Whatever betide, you must not run, nor show any sign of haste; for a crowd that is cheated is swift upon the scent as any hound. And if by ill chance you be taken, then submit yourself, for I will come to your aid, I pledge my word."

"Now do you understand right well the parts you must play?"

"Now remember — the signal given, you must delay not an instant. It is a man's life you work for, and maybe your own and mine too! And so farewell and good luck go with us!"

"You must must make your way with all speed to the castle rock and take you stand upon the highest place, that is to the left hand as you face the river. There you must stand with the ship ready in hand, awaiting the signal. And having received the signal, you must not delay a second."

"You … shall give the signal. You must press as close to the stake as you dare … The signal must be plain to him who watches."

"That afternoon the four children went round to the potting-shed to make the acquaintance of the new gardener — after all, a lot of the fun you can have in the garden depends upon what sort of man the gardner is."

"At first Robin was too dumbfounded to think clearly, but soon the thought of his man in danger put all other ideas out of his head; he sat there, a hand pulling impatiently at his beard. Round and round went his thoughts. More than once, his plan almost complete, he would discover some detail that would endanger the whole thing."

"She walked silent between the chattering children. This was their world, their own real world. But friendly and happy though it was, it wasn't her world. Hers was a world of cold stone castles and grim fighting; of hardship and courage. Of courage! She was suddenly impatient of this pleasant easy world of theirs, where life flowed so smoothly. She was so tired that it was almost as though she moved in a dream. Nothing seemed quite real any longer."

"I had thought you were a dream, all of you. Or that you had forgotten me. And I do not know which thought I liked least. And now you are here at last!"

"I must live my life in my own way and in my own time."

"Nobody must know where it has come from. It is my secret … We must slip it in through the vicarage door when it is dark!"

""I wonder what's really underneath that cloud?" asked Sandy. "I mean, if we could look through it, what would we see?" "The past, spread out like a map," Sheila answered."

""Did you hear that? gasped Humphrey. "The villain in the greenwood!" "Who robs the rich," continued Sheila. "To give to the poor," finished Sandy. Peter clapped his hands together. "Robin Hood!" he cried."

"Time was slipping away. The children were growing up little by little, even Sandy was quite big. And it was five years since Peter had seen the magic ship in the old dark window. And very good use they made of it, too. Backwards and forewords through history they went, until the story of their country became a living growing world to them."

"Ah! but a man cannot be held to write down in cold blood the wild and black thoughts that storm his brain when an uncontrolled passion has battered a breach for them. Yet, unless he sets up as a saint, he need not hate himself for them. He is better employed, as it humbly seems to me, in giving thanks that power to resist was vouchsafed to him than in fretting over wicked impulses which come unsought and extort an unwilling hospitality from the weakness of our nature."

"It makes your sin no worse, as I conceive, to do it à la mode and stylishly."

"Good families are generally worse than any others."

"How very seldom do you encounter in the world a man of great abilities, acquirements, experience, who will unmask his mind, unbutton his brains, and pour forth in careless and picturesque phrase all the results of his studies and observation; his knowledge of men, books, and nature. On the contrary, if a man has by any chance an original idea, he hoards it as if it were old gold; and rather avoids the subject with which he is most conversant, from fear that you may appropriate his best thoughts."

"Nature, like man, sometimes weeps from gladness."

"They stand now on the threshold of public life. They are in the leash, but in a moment they will be slipped. What will be their fate? Will they maintain in august assemblies and high places the great truths which, in study and in solitude, they have embraced? Or will their courage exhaust itself in the struggle, their enthusiasm evaporate before hollow-hearted ridicule, their generous impulses yield with a vulgar catastrophe to the tawdry temptations of a low ambition? Will their skilled intelligence subside into being the adroit tool of a corrupt party? Will Vanity confound their fortunes, or Jealousy wither their sympathies? Or will they remain brave, single, and true; refuse to bow before shadows and worship phrases; sensible of the greatness of their position, recognise the greatness of their duties; denounce to a perplexed and disheartened world the frigid theories of a generalising age that have destroyed the individuality of man, and restore the happiness of their country by believing in their own energies, and daring to be great?"

"Life is too short to be little. Man is never so manly as when he feels deeply, acts boldly, and expresses himself with frankness and with fervour."

"The world is governed by very different personages to what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes."

"We live in an age when to be young and to be indifferent can be no longer synonymous. We must prepare for the coming hour. The claims of the Future are represented by suffering millions; and the Youth of a Nation are the trustees of Posterity."

"Talk to a man about himself, and he is generally captivated."

"A great city, whose image dwells in the memory of man, is the type of some great idea. Rome represents conquest; Faith hovers over the towers of Jerusalem; and Athens embodies the pre-eminent quality of the antique world, Art."

"I have been ever of opinion that revolutions are not to be evaded."

"There arc some books, when we close them, — one or two in the course of our life, — difficult at it may be to analyze or ascertain the cause, after which our minds seem to have made a great leap. A thousand obscure things receive light; a multitude of indefinite feelings are determined. Our intellect grasps and grapples with all subjects with a capacity, a flexibility, and a vigor, before unknown to us. It masters questions hitherto perplexing, which are not even touched or referred to in the volume just closed. What is the magic? It is the spirit of the supreme author, by a magnetic influence blending with our sympathizing intelligence that directs and inspires it. By that mysterious sensibility we extend to questions which he has not treated, the same intellectual force which he has exercised over those which he has expounded. His genius for a time remains in us. 'Tis the same with human beings as with books. All of us encounter, at least once in our life, some individual who utters words that make us think forever. There are men whose phrases are oracles; who condense in a sentence the secrets of life; who blurt out an aphorism that forms a character or illustrates an existence. A great thing is a great book; but greater than all is the talk of a great man. And what is a great man? Is it a minister of state? Is it a victorious general? A gentleman in the Windsor uniform? A field marshal covered with stars? Is it a prelate or a prince? A king, even an emperor? It may be all these; yet these, as we must all daily feel, are not necessarily great men. A great man is one who affects the mind of his generation, whether he be a monk in his cloister agitating Christendom, or a monarch crossing the Granicus, and giving a new character to the Pagan world."

"Genius, when young, is divine."

"Almost everything that is great has been done by youth."

"It was not reason that besieged Troy; it was not reason that sent forth the Saracen from the desert to conquer the world; that inspired the crusades; that instituted the monastic orders; it was not reason that produced the Jesuits; above all, it was not reason that created the French Revolution. Man is only great when he acts from the passions; never irresistible but when he appeals to the imagination."

"Nurture your mind with great thoughts. To believe in the heroic makes heroes."

"Conservatism discards Prescription, shrinks from Principle, disavows Progress; having rejected all respect for Antiquity, it offers no redress for the Present, and makes no preparation for the Future."

"Hush!' said Mr. Tadpole. 'The time has gone by for Tory governments; what the country requires is a sound Conservative government.' 'A sound Conservative government,' said Taper, musingly. 'I understand: Tory men and Whig measures.'"

"Fame and power are the objects of all men. Even their partial fruition is gained by very few; and that, too, at the expense of social pleasure, health, conscience, life."

"A government of statesmen or of clerks? Of Humbug or Humdrum?"

"Youth is a blunder; Manhood a struggle; Old Age a regret."