Beatrix Potter Quotes & Sayings

I hold an old-fashioned notion that a happy marriage is the crown of a woman's life. — Beatrix Potter

For quiet, solitary and observant children create their own world and live in it, nourishing their imaginations on the material at hand. — Beatrix Potter

The shorter and the plainer the better. — Beatrix Potter

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

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. — Beatrix Potter

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

Believe there is a great power silently working all things for good, behave yourself and never mind the rest. — Beatrix Potter

If I have done anything, even a little, to help small children enjoy honest, simple pleasures, I have done a bit of good. — Beatrix Potter

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

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. — Beatrix Potter

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

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. — Beatrix Potter

I think prejudice and tradition count for three-quarters in matters of religion. — Beatrix Potter

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

I hold that a strongly marked personality can influence descendants for generations. — Beatrix Potter

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. — Beatrix Potter

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

I am worn to a raveling. — Beatrix Potter

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

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

WHAT a funny sight it is to see a brood of ducklings with a hen! — Beatrix Potter

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. — Beatrix Potter

One place suits on person, another place suits another person. For my part, I prefer to live in the country, like Timmy Willie. — Beatrix Potter

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. — Beatrix Potter

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

With opportunity the world is very interesting. — Beatrix Potter

It sometimes happens that the town child is more alive to the fresh beauty of the country than a child who is country born. My brother and I were born in London ... but our descent, our interest and our joy were in the north country'.
Quoted in The Tale of Beatrix Potter a Biography by Margaret Lane, First Edition p 32-33 — Beatrix Potter

Here comes Peter Cottontail right down the bunny trail ... — Beatrix Potter

There is something delicious about writing the first words of a story. You never quite know where they'll take you. — Beatrix Potter

We cannot stay home all our lives, we must present ourselves to the world and we must look upon it as an adventure. — Beatrix Potter

Thank goodness my education was neglected. — Beatrix Potter

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

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. — Beatrix Potter

But not even Hitler can damage the fells'
In 'The Tale of Beatrix Potter, A Autobiography' by Margaret Lane, first edition, page 170. — Beatrix Potter

Most people, after one success, are so cringingly afraid of doing less well that they rub all the edge off their subsequent work. — Beatrix Potter

So much perfection argues rottenness somewhere. — Beatrix Potter

I am sorry to say that Peter was not very well during the evening.
His mother put him to bed, and made some camomile tea; and she gave a dose of it to Peter!
'One table-spoonful to be taken at bed-time.'
But Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cotton-tail had bread and milk and blackberries for supper. — Beatrix Potter

I fear that we shall be obliged to leave this pudding — Beatrix Potter

Once upon a time there were four little Rabbits, and their names were
Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail, and Peter. — Beatrix Potter

Peter was not very well during the evening. His mother put him to bed, and made some chamomile tea: One table-spoonful to be taken at bedtime. — Beatrix Potter

I am aware these little books don't last long even if they are a success. — Beatrix Potter

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. — Beatrix Potter