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Frances Hodgson Burnett Quotes

Frances Eliza Hodgson Burnett was a British-born American novelist and playwright. She is best known for the three children's novels Little Lord Fauntleroy , A Little Princess , and The Secret Garden .

Frances Eliza Hodgson was born in Cheetham, Manchester, England. After her father died in 1852, the family fell on straitened circumstances and in 1865 emigrated to the United States, settling in New Market, Tennessee. There, Frances began writing to help earn money for the family, publishing stories in magazines from the age of 19. In 1870, her mother died, and in 1872 she married Swan Burnett, who became a medical doctor. The Burnetts lived for two years in Paris, where their two sons were born, before returning to the United States to live in Washington, D.C. Burnett then began to write novels, the first of which , was published to good reviews. Little Lord Fauntleroy was published in 1886 and made her a popular writer of children's fiction, although her romantic adult novels written in the 1890s were also popular. She wrote and helped to produce stage versions of Little Lord Fauntleroy and A Little Princess.

Beginning in the 1880s, Burnett began to travel to England frequently and in the 1890s bought a home there, where she wrote The Secret Garden. Her oldest son, Lionel, died of tuberculosis in 1890, which caused a relapse of the depression she had struggled with for much of her life. She divorced Swan Burnett in 1898, married Stephen Townsend in 1900, and divorced him in 1902. A few years later she settled in Nassau County, New York, where she died in 1924 and is buried in Roslyn Cemetery.

In 1936 a memorial sculpture by Bessie Potter Vonnoh was erected in her honour in Central Park's Conservatory Garden. The statue depicts her two famous Secret Garden characters, Mary and Dickon.



Wikipedia  

✵ 24. November 1849 – 29. October 1924  •  Other names Frans Hudqson Burnet
Frances Hodgson Burnett photo

Works

The Secret Garden
Frances Hodgson Burnett
A Little Princess
A Little Princess
Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Secret Garden
Frances Hodgson Burnett
A Little Princess
A Little Princess
Frances Hodgson Burnett
Frances Hodgson Burnett: 56 quotes14 likes

Famous Frances Hodgson Burnett Quotes

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

Frances Hodgson Burnett The Secret Garden

Source: The Secret Garden

“If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett The Secret Garden

Source: The Secret Garden

“She says it has nothing to do with what you look like, or what you have. It has only to do with what you think of and what you do.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett A Little Princess

Variant: She says it has nothing to do with what you look like, or what you have. It has only to do with what you think of, and what you do.
Source: A Little Princess

“People never like me and I never like people”

Frances Hodgson Burnett The Secret Garden

Source: The Secret Garden

“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.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett The Secret Garden

Source: The Secret Garden

“I don't know who it is," she said; "but somebody cares for me a little. I have a friend.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett A Little Princess

Source: A Little Princess

Frances Hodgson Burnett Quotes about people

“Of course there must be lots of Magic in the world, but people don't know what it is like or how to make it.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett The Secret Garden

Source: The Secret Garden

“That's what I look at some people for. I like to know about them. I think them over afterward.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett A Little Princess

Source: A Little Princess

“Things happen to people by accident.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett A Little Princess

Source: A Little Princess

“Perhaps you can feel if you can't hear. Perhaps kind thoughts reach people somehow, even through windows and doors and walls. Perhaps you feel a little warm and comforted.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett A Little Princess

Source: A Little Princess

“Perhaps to be able to learn things quickly isn't everything. To be kind is worth a great deal to other people… Lots of clever people have done harm and have been wicked.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett A Little Princess

Source: A Little Princess

“If Sara had been a boy and lived a few centuries ago, her father used to say, 'she would have gone about the country with her sword drawn, rescuing and defending everyone in distress. She always wants to fight when she sees people in trouble.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett A Little Princess

Source: A Little Princess

Frances Hodgson Burnett Quotes about the world

“One marvel of a day he had walked so far that when he returned the moon was high and full and all the world was purple shadow and silver.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett The Secret Garden

Source: The Secret Garden

“Never thee stop believin' in th' Big Good Thing an' knowin' th' world's full of it - and call it what tha' likes. Tha' wert singin' to it when I come into t' garden.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett The Secret Garden

Source: The Secret Garden

“Nothing in the world is quite as adorably lovely as a robin when he shows off and they are nearly always doing it.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett The Secret Garden

Source: The Secret Garden

“Perhaps there is a language which is not made of words and everything in the world understands it.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett A Little Princess

Source: A Little Princess

Frances Hodgson Burnett: Trending quotes

“She did not care very much for other little girls, but if she had plenty of books she could console herself.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett A Little Princess

Source: A Little Princess

“And this, my lovely child, is your garden.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett The Secret Garden

Archie
The Secret Garden (1909)

Frances Hodgson Burnett Quotes

“Is the spring coming?" he said. "What is it like?"…
"It is the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sunshine…”

Frances Hodgson Burnett The Secret Garden

Source: The Secret Garden

“I am a princess. All girls are. Even if they live in tiny old attics. Even if they dress in rags, even if they aren’t pretty, or smart, or young. They’re still princesses.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett A Little Princess

Source: A Little Princess

“It made her think that it was curious how much nicer a person looked when he smiled. She had not thought of it before.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett The Secret Garden

Source: The Secret Garden

“Where you tend a rose my lad, a thistle cannot grow.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett The Secret Garden

Variant: Two things cannot be in one place. Where you tend a rose, my lad, a thistle cannot grow.
Source: The Secret Garden

“And the secret garden bloomed and bloomed and every morning revealed new miracles.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett The Secret Garden

Source: The Secret Garden

“However many years she lived, Mary always felt that 'she should never forget that first morning when her garden began to grow'.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett The Secret Garden

Source: The Secret Garden

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

Frances Hodgson Burnett The Secret Garden

Source: The Secret Garden

“Two worst things as can happen to a child is never to have his own way - or always to have it.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett The Secret Garden

Source: The Secret Garden

“Somehow, something always happens just before things get to the very worst. It is as if Magic did it. If I could only just remember that always. The worse thing never quite comes.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett A Little Princess

Source: A Little Princess

“What you have to do with your mind, when your body is miserable, is to make it think of something else.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett A Little Princess

Source: A Little Princess

“To let a sad thought or a bad one get into your mind is as dangerous as letting a scarlet fever germ get into your body. If you let it stay there after it has got in, you may never get over it as long as you live.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett

“There's naught as nice as th' smell o' good clean earth, except th' smell o' fresh growin' things when th' rain falls on 'em.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett The Secret Garden

Source: The Secret Garden

“I don't like it, papa," she said. "But then I dare say soldiers - even brave ones - don't reallygoing into battle.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett A Little Princess

Source: A Little Princess

“Are you learning me by heart, little Sara?" he said, stroking her hair.
"No," she answered. "I know you by heart. You are inside my heart.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett A Little Princess

Source: A Little Princess

“But I suppose there might be good in things, even if we don't see it.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett A Little Princess

Source: A Little Princess

“My mother always says people should be able to take care of themselves, even if they're rich and important.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett The Secret Garden

Source: The Secret Garden

“All women are princesses, it is our right.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett A Little Princess

Source: A Little Princess

“Oh, how she did love that queer, common boy!”

Frances Hodgson Burnett The Secret Garden

Source: The Secret Garden

“Yes," answered Sara, nodding. "Adversity tries people, and mine has tried you and proved how nice you are.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett A Little Princess

Source: A Little Princess

“You can lose a friend in springtime easier than any other season if you're too curious.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett The Secret Garden

Source: The Secret Garden

“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.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett A Little Princess

Source: A Little Princess

“It's so easy that when you begin you can't stop. You just go on and on doing it always.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett A Little Princess

Source: A Little Princess

“It's true," she said. "Sometimes I do pretend I am a princess. I pretend I am a princess, so that I can try and behave like one.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett A Little Princess

Source: A Little Princess

“She looked into the staring glass eyes and complacent face, and suddenly a sort of heartbroken rage seized her. She lifted her little savage hand and knocked Emily off the chair, bursting into a passion of sobbing- Sara who never cried.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett A Little Princess

Source: A Little Princess

“If nature has made you a giver, your hands are born open, and so is your heart. And though there may be times when your hands are empty, your heart is always full, and you can give things out of that.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett

“I am writing in the garden. To write as one should of a garden one must write not outside it or merely somewhere near it, but in the garden.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett

“Soldiers don't complain… I am not going to do it; I will pretend this is part of a war.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett A Little Princess

Source: A Little Princess

“You and me are a good bit alike. We're neither of us good lookin', and we're both as sour as we look.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett The Secret Garden

Ben
The Secret Garden (1909)

“You can't marry this Archibald. He's a gloomy, miserable cripple that hides himself away in that horrible house. You've said it yourself, you can't believe you love him and neither can I!”

Frances Hodgson Burnett The Secret Garden

Rose
The Secret Garden (1909)

“Yorkshire’s th’ sunniest place on earth when it is sunny.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett The Secret Garden

Source: The Secret Garden (1911), Chapter 7

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