E Nesbit

Literary Birthday – 15 August – E. Nesbit

E. Nesbit was born 15 August 1858, and died 4 May 1924.

Nine Quotes

  1. There is no bond like having read and liked the same books.
  2. This is why I shall not tell you in this story about all the days when nothing happened. You will not catch me saying, ‘thus the sad days passed slowly by’—or ‘the years rolled on their weary course’—or ‘time went on’—because it is silly; of course time goes on—whether you say so or not. So I shall just tell you the nice, interesting parts—and in between you will understand that we had our meals and got up and went to bed, and dull things like that.
  3. I never read prefaces, and it is not much good writing things just for people to skip. I wonder other authors have never thought of this.
  4. There is nothing more luxurious than eating while you read – unless it be reading while you eat. Amabel did both: they are not the same thing, as you will see if you think the matter over.
  5. Time is, as you are probably aware, merely a convenient fiction. There is no such thing as time.
  6. When you are young so many things are difficult to believe, and yet the dullest people will tell you that they are true—such things, for instance, as that the earth goes round the sun, and that it is not flat but round. But the things that seem really likely, like fairy-tales and magic, are, so say the grown-ups, not true at all. Yet they are so easy to believe, especially when you see them happening.
  7. It is a curious thing that people only ask if you are enjoying yourself when you aren’t.
  8. Ladylike is the beastliest word there is, I think. If a girl isn’t a lady, it isn’t worth while to be only like one, she’d better let it alone and be a free and happy bounder.
  9. It is curious that nearly all the great fortunes are made by turning beautiful things into ugly ones. Making beauty out of ugliness is very ill-paid work.

Edith Nesbit, known as E. Nesbit, was an English author and poet. She wrote or collaborated on over 60 books, including The Railway Children, several of which have been adapted for film and television. Nesbit was co-founder of the Fabian socialists. Her friends included George Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells, Annie Besant, Lord Dunsany, and Noel Coward.

Source for Image: Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nesbit.jpg

by Amanda Patterson

Please click here for our Literary Birthday Calendar

Posted on: 15th August 2013
(5,100 views)