Frances Hodgson Burnett citations

“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.”

“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.”

“People never like me and I never like people”

“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.”

“She made herself stronger by fighting with the wind.”

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

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

“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.”

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

“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…”

“Everything's a story - You are a story -I am a story.”

“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.”

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

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

“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.”

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

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

“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”

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

“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.”

“Hang in there. It is astonishing how short a time it can take for very wonderful things to happen.”

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

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

“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.”

“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.”

“I pretend I am a princess, so that I can try and behave like one.”

“Might I," quavered Mary, "might I have a bit of earth?”

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

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