BEATRIX POTTER

All outward forms of religion are almost useless, and are the causes of endless strife. Believe there is a great power silently working all things for good, behave yourself and never mind the rest.

It is said that the effect of eating too much lettuce is 'soporific'.

Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality.

Thank God I have the seeing eye, that is to say, as I lie in bed I can walk step by step on the fells and rough land seeing every stone and flower and patch of bog and cotton pass where my old legs will never take me again.

What will be blown up next? Last night an attempt was made to blow up the Government Offices in Parliament Street. Not so much damage was done to the building, owing to its great strength, but the streets for some distance round were strewn with glass…. Papa says it is Mr. Gladstone’s fault. He takes the side of these rogues and then, if they think he is slackening, they frighten him on a bit – really we shall be as bad as France soon.

It sometimes happens that the town child is more alive to the fresh beauty of the country than a child who is country born

Then Mrs. Tiggy-winkle made tea - a cup for herself and a cup for Lucie. They sat before the fire on a bench and looked sideways at one another. Mrs. Tiggy-winkle's hand, holding the tea-cup, was very very brown, and very very wrinkly with the soap-suds; and all through her gown and her cap, there were HAIRPINS sticking wrong end out; so that Lucie didn't like to sit too near her.

Don't go into Mr. McGregor's garden: your Father had an accident there; he was put in a pie by Mrs. McGregor.

In the time of swords and periwigs and full-skirted coats with flowered lappets - when gentlemen wore ruffles, and gold-laced waistcoats of paduasoy and taffeta - there lived a tailor in Gloucester.

What we call the highest and the lowest in nature are both equally perfect. A willow bush is as beautiful as the human form divine.

I cannot rest, I must draw, however poor the result, and when I have a bad time come over me it is a stronger desire than ever.

So much perfection argues rottenness somewhere.

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

Once upon a time there were three kittens, and their names were Mitten, Tom Kitten, and Moppet. They had dear little fur coats of their own; and they tumbled about the doorstep and played in the dust.

This is a fierce bad rabbit; look at his savage whiskers, and his claws and his turned-up tail.

With opportunity the world is very interesting.

I have just made stories to please myself, because I never grew up.

I do so hate finishing books. I would like to go on with them for years.

Thank goodness my education was neglected.

I fear that we shall be obliged to leave this pudding

The place is changed now, and many familiar faces are gone, but the greatest change is myself. I was a child then, I had no idea what the world would be like. I wished to trust myself on the waters and the sea. Everything was romantic in my imagination. The woods were peopled by the mysterious good folk. The Lords and Ladies of the last century walked with me along the overgrown paths, and picked the old fashioned flowers among the box and rose hedges of the garden.

I hold an old-fashioned notion that a happy marriage is the crown of a woman’s life.

Sunday, January 27, 1884. -- There was another story in the paper a week or so since. A gentleman had a favourite cat whom he taught to sit at the dinner table where it behaved very well. He was in the habit of putting any scraps he left onto the cat's plate. One day puss did not take his place punctually, but presently appeared with two mice, one of which it placed on its master's plate, the other on its own.

Peter lost one of his shoes among the cabbages, and the other shoe amongst the potatoes.

I think if she lived in A little shoe-house That little old woman was Surely a mouse!