“What heaven can be more real than to retain the spirit-world of childhood?”

—  Beatrix Potter

Last update Feb. 4, 2022. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "What heaven can be more real than to retain the spirit-world of childhood?" by Beatrix Potter?
Beatrix Potter photo
Beatrix Potter 18
English children's writer and illustrator 1866–1943

Related quotes

Beatrix Potter photo

“I remember I used to half believe and wholly play with fairies when I was a child. What heaven can be more real than to retain the spirit-world of childhood, tempered and balanced by knowledge and common-sense…”

Beatrix Potter (1866–1943) English children's writer and illustrator

Journal entry (1896-11-17), from the National Trust collection.
Source: The Complete Tales

Friedrich Nietzsche photo

“How much truth can a spirit bear, how much truth can a spirit dare?… that became for me more and more the real measure of value.”

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist
Alison Goodman photo

“It is not often that the real world conjures worse than what we can imagine.”

Alison Goodman (1966) Australian science-fiction writer

Source: Eona: The Last Dragoneye

Nathaniel Hawthorne photo

“There is something truer and more real, than what we can see with the eyes, and touch with the finger.”

Nathaniel Hawthorne book Rappaccini's Daughter

Source: Rappaccini's Daughter

Johnny Depp photo

“Growing old is unavoidable, but never growing up is possible. I believe you can retain certain things from your childhood if you protect them - certain traits, certain places where you don’t let the world go.”

Johnny Depp (1963) American actor, film producer, and musician
Jack Kerouac photo

“What difference does it make after all? — anonymity in the world of men is better than fame in heaven, for what's heaven? what's earth? All in the mind.”

Jack Kerouac book On the Road

Part Three, Ch. 11
Source: On the Road (1957)
Context: In 1942 I was the star in one of the filthiest dramas of all time. I was a seaman, and went to the Imperial Café on Scollay Square in Boston to drink; I drank sixty glasses of beer and retired to the toilet, where I wrapped myself around the toilet bowl and went to sleep. During the night at least a hundred seamen and assorted civilians came in and cast their sentient debouchements on me till I was unrecognizably caked. What difference does it make after all? — anonymity in the world of men is better than fame in heaven, for what's heaven? what's earth? All in the mind.

Jeremy Taylor photo

“Can any thing in this world be more foolish than to think that all this rare fabric of heaven and earth can come by chance, when all the skill of art is not able to make an oyster?”

Jeremy Taylor (1613–1667) English clergyman

Sermon XX, Part II

Anatole France photo

“Can any thing in this world be more foolish than to think that all this rare fabric of heaven and earth can come by chance, when all the skill of art is not able to make an oyster!”

Anatole France (1844–1924) French writer

Jeremy Taylor, "Apples of Sodom," Part II, Sermon XX of Twenty-Five Sermons for the Winter Half-Year, Preached at Golden Grove (1653)
Misattributed
Variant: What can be more foolish than to think that all this rare fabric of heaven and earth could come by chance, when all the skill of art is not able to make an oyster!

Samuel Richardson photo

“Nothing can be more wounding to a spirit not ungenerous, than a generous forgiveness.”

Samuel Richardson book Clarissa

Vol. 2, p. 478; Letter 135.
Clarissa (1747–1748)

Related topics