Last Updated: August 21, 2022 by Quote.cc Team
Peter Pan, released in 1953, is an American animated fantasy-adventure film produced by Walt Disney. This movie’s story was based on a 1904 play named ‘Peter Pan’ or the ‘Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up’ by Scottish novelist J. M. Barrie. Later in 1911, he gave rise to another version of the same in the form of a novel named ‘Peter and Wendy’. The title was later changed to Peter Pan.
The story revolves around a mischievous boy named Peter Pan, who can fly and who never grows up. It is the truly magical experience of his journey with Tinker Bell (pixie friend) and a group of ordinary children to a small island called Neverland. This group of children, whom he teaches to fly with Tinker Bell, and Peter Pan himself, then fly away to this island and have many adventures. Their encounters with mermaids, pirates, the lost boys, Native Americans, and ticking crocodiles are interesting. Although it was published more than 115 years ago, children and adults are still loved by Peter Pan’s adventures and characters. Peter Pan represents eternal youth and has become a cultural symbol of innocence and escapism.
The myth of the ‘Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up’ tells us so much about the transition from childhood to adulthood with all its responsibilities. The story also taps into a child’s imagination and freedom from society. Here are some of the best quotes from J.M. Barie’s and Disney’s versions, and Robin Williams’ as Peter in Hook, along with some interesting facts about them. Take a trip back to Neverland with these 160 Peter Pan quotes from J.M. Barrie’s classic work.
The Ultimate List of Peter Pan Quotes
Top 10 Peter Pan Quotes
“Oh, the cleverness of me!”
“All the world is made of faith, and trust, and pixie dust.”
“To die will be an awfully big adventure.”
“Second star to the right and straight on ‘til morning.”
“Never say goodbye because goodbye means going away, and going away means forgetting.”
“Think of all the joy you’ll find when you leave the world behind and bid your cares goodbye.”
“You know, I have the strangest feeling I’ve seen that ship before… a long time ago, when I was very young.”
“I don’t know whether you have ever seen a map of a person’s mind. Doctors sometimes draw maps of other parts of you, and your own map can become intensely interesting, but catch them trying to draw a map of a child’s mind, which is not only confused, but keeps going round all the time.”
“Stars are beautiful, but they may not take an active part in anything, they must just look on forever. It is a punishment put on them for something they did so long ago that no star now knows what it was. So the older ones have become glassy-eyed and seldom speak (winking is the star language), but the little ones still wonder.”
“Odd things happen to all of us on our way through life without our noticing for a time that they have happened.”
Famous Peter Pan Quotes
“Faint hearts never won, Fair Lady.”
“Don’t mess with me man, I’m a lawyer!”
“I’m not a pirate. It so happens I am a lawyer.”
“Absence makes the heart grow fonder…or forgetful.”
“All it takes is faith and trust, oh! and something I forgot: dust.”
“It may have been quixotic, but it was magnificent.”
“What of Pan? Would unhappy thoughts bring him down?”
“Oh, no. To live… to live would be an awfully big adventure.”
“You lewd, crude, rude, bag of pre-chewed food, Dude.”
“You killed Rufio, you kidnapped my children. You deserve to die.”
“You always know after you are two. Two is the beginning of the end.”
“You are a very ill-mannered young man. Do you know that?”
“All are keeping a sharp look-out in front, but none suspects that the danger may be creeping up from behind.”
“Don’t you understand? You mean more to me than anything in this whole world!”
“Do you know…why swallows build in the eaves of houses? It is to listen to the stories.”
“I have the strangest feeling that I’ve seen that ship before a long time ago when I was very young.”
“I suppose it’s like the ticking crocodile, isn’t it? Time is chasing after all of us.”
“It is not in doing what you like, but in liking what you do that is the secret of happiness.”
“It was then that Hook bit him. Not the pain of this but its unfairness was what dazed Peter. It made him quite helpless. He could only stare, horrified. Every child is affected thus the first time he is treated unfairly.”
“You don’t think I would kill him while he was sleeping! I would wake him first, and then kill him. That’s the way I always do.”
“Mrs. Darling first heard of Peter when she was tidying up her children’s minds. It is the nightly custom of every good mother after her children are asleep to rummage in their minds and put things straight for next morning, repacking into their proper places the many articles that have wandered during the day.”
“The difference between him and the other boys at such a time was that they knew it was make-believe, while to him make-believe and true were exactly the same thing. This sometimes troubled them, as when they had to make-believe that they had had their dinners.”
“They took it for granted that if they went he would go also, but really they scarcely cared. Thus children are ever so ready, when novelty knocks, to desert their dearest ones.”
Cute Peter Pan Quotes
“Never is an awfully long time.”
“Just always be waiting for me.”
“I remember you being a lot bigger.”
“I remember kisses, let me see.”
“Boy, why are you crying?”
“Aye, that is a kiss. A powerful thing.”
“I came to listen to the stories.”
“One girl is worth more than twenty boys.”
“Oh my God, I think I killed it.”
“When there’s a smile in your heart, there’s no better time to start.”
“Oh, Rufio, why don’t you just go suck on a dead dog’s nose?”
“Girls are much too clever to fall out of their prams.”
“I don’t want to go to school and learn solemn things.”
“I bet you don’t even have a fourth-grade reading level.”
“All you need is faith, trust and a little bit of pixie dust.”
“Can anything harm us, mother, after the night-lights are lit?”
“I’ll think of a mermaid lagoon underneath a magic moon.”
“I’ll teach you how to jump on the wind’s back, and then away we go.”
“I’ll hold you in my heart until I can hold you in my arms.”
“I’m youth, I’m joy, I’m a little bird that has broken out of the egg.”
“What is this, some sort of Lord of the Flies preschool? Where are your parents? Who’s in charge, here?”
“Fairies don’t live long, but they are so little that a short time seems a good while to them.”
“He looked at her uncomfortably; blinking, you know, like one not sure whether he was awake or asleep.”
“On these magic shores children at play are for ever beaching their coracles. We too have been there; we can still hear the sound of the surf, though we shall land no more.”
“Will they reach the nursery in time? If so, how delightful for them, and we shall all breathe a sigh of relief, but there will be no story. On the other hand, if they are not in time, I solemnly promise that it will all come right in the end.”
“When the first baby laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies.”
Inspirational Peter Pan Quotes
“Would you like an adventure now, or would like to have your tea first?”
“Wait for me somewhere between reality and all we’ve ever dreamed.”
“To live would be an awfully big adventure.”
“Dark and sinister man, have at thee.”
“Dreams do come true, if only we wish hard enough. You can have anything in life if you will sacrifice everything else for it.”
“It was dreadful the way all the three were looking at him, just as if they did not admire him.”
“Sometimes, though not often, he had dreams, and they were more painful than the dreams of other boys. For hours he could not be separated from these dreams, though he wailed piteously in them. They had to do, I think, with the riddle of his existence.”
“The second star to the right, shines in the night for you, to tell you that the dreams you have really can come true.”
“There are many different kinds of bravery. There’s the bravery of thinking of others before one’s self. Now, your father has never brandished a sword nor fired a pistol, thank heavens. But he has made many sacrifices for his family, and put away many dreams.”
Peter Pan Quotes About Growing Up
“You need not be sorry for her. She was one of the kinds that like to grow up. In the end, she grew up of her own free will a day quicker than the other girls.”
“Once you’re grown up you can’t come back.”
“No! No, Mr. Skunkhead with too much mousse. You are just a punk kid. I want to speak to a grown-up!”
“Keep adventuring and stay not a grown-up.”
“If growing up means it would be beneath my dignity to climb a tree, I’ll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up! Not me!”
“Growing up is such a barbarous business, full of inconvenience… and pimples.”
“Go on! Go back and grow up! But I’m warning you, once you’re grown up you can never come back.”
“Even though you want to try to, never grow up.”
“Don’t grow up. It’s a trap.”
“Children have the strangest adventures without being troubled by them. For instance, they may remember to mention, a week after the event happened, that when they were in the wood they had met their dead father and had a game with him.”
“Little boys should never be sent to bed. They always wake up a day older.”
Peter Pan Quotes About Flying
“Firefly from hell!”
“You’re not old enough to shave! What are you doing with a sword? And flying around… this is an insurance nightmare!”
“The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease for ever to be able to do it.”
“Just think of happy things and your heart will fly on wings forever in never-never land.”
“Jack, Maggie, all you have to do is think one happy thought, and you’ll fly like me.”
“In time they could not even fly after their hats. Want of practice, they called it; but what it really meant was that they no longer believed.”
“If you cannot teach me to fly, teach me to sing.”
Peter Pan Quotes About Neverland
“All you need is trust and a little bit of pixie dust!”
“You find a glimmer of happiness in this world, there’s always someone who wants to destroy it.”
“I suppose it’s like the ticking crocodile, isn’t it? Time is chasing after all of us.”
“There is a saying in the Neverland that,every time you breathe, a grown-up dies.”
“You just think lovely wonderful thoughts, Peter explained, and they lift you up in the air.”
“Of course the Neverlands vary a good deal. John’s, for instance, had a lagoon with flamingos flying over it at which John was shooting, while Michael, who was very small, had a flamingo with lagoons flying over it. John lived in a boat turned upside down on the sands, Michael in a wigwam, Wendy in a house of leaves deftly sewn together. John had no friends, Michael had friends at night, Wendy had a pet wolf forsaken by its parents.”
“Feeling that Peter was on his way back, the Neverland had again woke into life. We ought to use the pluperfect and say wakened, but woke is better and was always used by Peter.”
“Do you know, Peter asked, why swallows build in the eaves of houses? It is to listen to the stories.”
“He was so full of wrath against grown-ups, who as usual, were spoiling everything, that as soon as he got inside his tree he breathed intentionally quick short breaths at the rate of about five to a second. He did this because there is a saying in the Neverland, that everytime you breathe, a grown-up dies; and Peter was killing them of vindictively as fast as possible.”
“But where do you live mostly now? With the lost boys. Who are they? They are the children who fall out of their perambulators when the nurse is looking the other way. If they are not claimed in seven days they are sent far away to the Neverland to defray expanses. I’m captain. What fun it must be! Yes, said cunning Peter, but we are rather lonely. You see we have no female companionship. Are none of the others girls? Oh no; girls, you know, are much too clever to fall out of their prams.”
“Second to the right, and straight on till morning. That, Peter had told Wendy, was the way to the Neverland; but even birds, carrying maps and consulting them at windy corners, could not have sighted it with these instructions. Peter, you see, just said anything that came into his head.”
“Young boys should never be sent to bed. They always wake up a day older.”
“I taught you to fight and to fly. What more could there be?”
“All children, except one, grow up.”
“All of this has happened before, and it will all happen again.”
“All the world is made of faith, and trust, and pixie dust.”
“Wow. Brad, hi! You been holding this long? Uh-huh. I’m incredible. Yeah, Neverland. Uh-huh. Lost Boys. Jim Hook, duel to the death. I’ll fill you in later. Listen, I’d love to chat, but I gotta climb a drain pipe right now. Why? Because I ran out of fairy dust, if not I would’ve flown up.”
“Of all the delectable islands the Neverland is the snuggest and most compact, not large and sprawly, you know, with tedious distances between one adventure and another, but nicely crammed. When you play at it by day with the chairs and table-cloth, it is not in the least alarming, but in the two minutes before you go to sleep it becomes very nearly real. That is why there are night-lights.”
“As you look at Wendy you may see her hair becoming white, and her figure little again, for all this happened long ago. Jane is now a common grown-up, with a daughter called Margaret; and every spring-cleaning time, except when he forgets, Peter comes for Margaret and takes her to Neverland, where she tells him stories about himself, to which he listens eagerly. When Margaret grows up she will have a daughter, who is to be Peter’s mother in turn; and so it will go on, so long as children are gay and innocent and heartless.”
“So come with me, where dreams are born and time is never planned. Just think of happy things and your heart will fly on wings forever in Never-never Land.”
Peter Pan Quotes About Love
“You mean more to me than anyone in this whole world.”
“Now, think of the happiest things. It’s the same as having wings!”
“You’re a… you’re a complex Freudian hallucination having something to do with my mother and I don’t know why you have wings, but you have very lovely legs and you’re a very nice tiny person and what am I saying, I don’t know who my mother was; I’m an orphan and I’ve never taken drugs because I missed the ’60s, I was an accountant.”
“You know that place between sleep and awake where you’re always dreaming? That’s where I’ll always love you. That’s where I’ll be waiting.”
“Mrs. Darling loved to have everything just so, and Mr. Darling had a passion for being exactly like his neighbours; so, of course, they had a nurse. As they were poor, owing to the amount of milk the children drank, this nurse was a prim Newfoundland dog, called Nana, who had belonged to no one in particular until the Darlings engaged her.”
“If you shut your eyes and are a lucky one, you may see at times a shapeless pool of lovely pale colours suspended in the darkness; then if you squeeze your eyes tighter, the pool begins to take shape, and the colours become so vivid that with another squeeze they must go on fire.”
“I never expected that you could have a broken heart and love with it too, so much that it does not seem broken at all.”
“After you have been unfair to him he will love you again, but he will never afterward be quite the same boy. No one ever gets over the first unfairness; no one except Peter.”
“A moment after the fairy’s entrance the window was blown open by the breathing of the little stars, and Peter dropped in.”
“It is the nightly custom of every good mother after her children are asleep to rummage in their minds and put things straight for the next morning, repacking into their proper places the many articles that have wandered during the day.”
“Next year he did not come for her. She waited in a new frock because the old one simply would not meet, but he never came.”
“Nothing, precious, they are the eyes a mother leaves behind her to guard her children.”
“She also said she would give him a kiss if he liked, but Peter did not know what she meant, and he held out his hand expectantly.”
“Peter was not with them for the moment, and they felt rather lonely up there by themselves. He could go so much faster than they that he would suddenly shoot out of sight, to have some adventure in which they had no share. He would come down laughing over something fearfully funny he had been saying to a star, but he had already forgotten what it was, or he would come up with mermaid scales still sticking to him, and yet not be able to to say for certain what had been happening. It was really rather irritating to children who had never seen a mermaid.”
“Fairies have to be one thing or the other because being so small they, unfortunately, have room for one feeling only at a time.”
Peter Pan Quotes Tinkerbell
Tinker Bell is a fictional character from J. M. Barrie’s 1904 play Peter Pan and its 1911 novelisation Peter and Wendy. She has appeared in a variety of film and television adaptations of the Peter Pan stories, in particular the 1953 animated Walt Disney picture Peter Pan.
“If less is more, there’s no end to me, Peter Pan.”
“Guess what? I’ve decided, I’m not gonna be a tinker fairy anymore.”
“Their meal was illuminated by torches, which Gwen found were utterly without fire. What the children called torches were really just small platforms on tall, wooden poles.”
“Well, I was thinking. Why do I have to be a tinker? Just because some silly hammer glowed? I mean, whose to say it wasn’t just some big mistake? Maybe I can just switch my talent!”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if that is the way things go after all – that all things end happy.”
“A faerie heart is different from a human heart. Human hearts are elastic. They have room for all sorts of passions, and they can break and heal and love again and again.”
“To Tinkerbell who is fighting off the pirates: Are you related to Mighty Mouse?”
“You know that place between sleep and awake? That place where you still remember dreaming? That’s where I’ll always love you… Peter Pan. That’s where I’ll be waiting.”
“If you believe, he shouted to them, clap your hands; don’t let Tink die.”
“They are, however, allowed to change, only it must be a complete change.”
“Don’t you understand, Tink? You mean more to me than anything in this whole world!”
“It is frightfully difficult to know much about the fairies, and almost the only thing for certain is that there are fairies wherever there are children.”
“She says she glories in being abandoned.”
“Children know such a lot now. Soon they don’t believe. And every time a child says ‘I don’t believe in fairies’, there’s a fairy someplace that falls down dead.”
“All you need is faith trust and a little bit of pixie dust.”
“The glowing light that represents her on the stage begins to dim, and there is only one possible way to save the dire situation.”
“There oughta be a fairy for every girl and boy.”
“Laughter is timeless. Imagination has no age. Dreams are forever.”
“It was like this sometimes, and I felt I should look away, but I couldn’t. I wanted to be there, having my face touched, defeating a heart like Peter’s, but the next best thing was seeing it for Tiger Lily.”
“Fairies have to be one thing or the other, because being so small they unfortunately have room for one feeling only at a time.”
“You all do things that are beautiful and magical and… and important. But me… there’s gotta be more to my life than just pots and kettles. All I’m asking you is that you give me a chance.”
“Tink was not all bad: or, rather, she was all bad just now, but, on the other hand, sometimes she was all good. Fairies have to be one thing or the other, because being so small they unfortunately have room for one feeling only at a time.”
“When the first baby laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies.”
“In the immortal children’s Christmas pantomime Peter Pan, there comes a climactic moment when the little angel Tinkerbell seems to be dying.”
“Tink was not all bad: or, rather, she was all bad just now, but, on the other hand, sometimes she was all good. Fairies have to be one thing or the other, because being so small they unfortunately have room for one feeling only at a time. They are, however, allowed to change, only it must be a complete change.”
Peter Pan Quotes Wendy
“Peter Pan will save us!”
“Oh, but, mother, it was a such a wonderful adventure!”
“Who be you to order me about and call me girlie?”
“Adventures! In which good triumphs over evil!”
“I’m so happy, I think I’ll give you a kiss.”
“My name is Wendy. Wendy Moira Angela Darling.”
“Wendy, one girl is more use than twenty boys.”
“Oh, Peter, you saved my life!”
“But mother, I don’t want to grow up.”
“I’ll think of a mermaid lagoon, underneath a magic moon.”
“She asked where he lived. Second to the right, said Peter, and then straight on till morning.”
“The last thing he ever said to me was, Just always be waiting for me, and then some night you will hear me crowing.”
“Why can’t you fly now, mother? Because I am grown up, dearest. When people grow up they forget the way.”
“You see, Wendy, when the first baby laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies.”
“Years rolled on again, and Wendy had a daughter. This ought not to be written in ink but in a golden splash.”
“Wendy, Wendy, when you are sleeping in your silly bed you might be flying about with me saying funny things to the stars.”
“Peter invented, with Wendy’s help, a new game that fascinated him enormously, until he suddenly had no more interest in it, which, as you have been told, was what always happened with his games. It consisted of pretending not to have adventures…”
“I say, Wendy…always if you see me forgetting you, just keep on saying ‘I’m Wendy,’ and then I’ll remember.”
“Forget them, Wendy. Forget them all. Come with me where you’ll never, never have to worry about grown-up things again.”
“But the years came and went without bringing the careless boy; and when they met again Wendy was a married woman, and Peter was no more to her than a little dust in the box in which she had kept her toys.”
“Oh, Peter, I knew you’d come back! I saved your shadow for you. Oh, I do hope it isn’t rumpled. You know, you look exactly the way I thought you would. A litter taller perhaps.”
“You can’t stick it on with soap, Peter! It needs sewing. That’s the proper way to do it.”
“After all, one can’t leave his shadow lying about and not miss it sooner or later, don’t you agree?”
“Why, Peter, a mother’s someone who loves and cares for you and tells you stories.”
“Well, a mother, a real mother, is the most wonderful person in the world. She’s the angel voice that bids you goodnight, kisses your cheek, whispers ‘sleep tight.’”
Final Thoughts
An adventurous character created by J. M. Barrie, Peter Pan represents eternal youth and has become a cultural symbol for innocence and escapism. Peter Pan and his timeless story are among the world’s most enduring tales of childhood and adventure. We watched it over and over when we were kids. This tale is believed to have enchanted children all over the world for more than a century.
Along with memorable quotes like these, Peter Pan’s imaginative storyline has made it one of the most enduring stories for readers of all ages. Even if you’ve joined Wendy in the world of grown-ups, you’ll always remember the magic of childhood that J. M. Barrie so poignantly captured.
Which of these memorable Peter Pan quotes is your favorite? Do you have any other quotes to add? Let us know in the comment section below.
External links
- Official website: https://movies.disney.com/peter-pan
- Peter Pan at IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046183/
- Peter Pan at Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1016213-peter_pan