quotations about fairies
In the old poetic time the same fairy that would lead men astray for the sake of mischief, would, by way of recompense, churn the butter and trim up the house, while the household snored.
DOUGLAS JERROLD
Specimens of Douglas Jerrold's Wit
Of course, I knew there are no fairies; but that needn't prevent my thinking there is.
L. M. MONTGOMERY
Anne of Avonlea
Nor elves, nor fays, nor magic charm,
Have pow'r, or will, to work us harm;
For those who dare the truth to tell,
Fays, elves, and fairies, wish them well.
MARIA EDGEWORTH
The Knapsack
It is not children only that one feeds with fairy tales.
GOTTHOLD EPHRAM LESSING
Nathan der Weise
The most celebrated fairy doctors are sometimes people the fairies loved and carried away, and kept with them for seven years; not that those the fairies love are always carried off--they may merely grow silent and strange, and take to lonely wanderings in the "gentle" places.
W. B. YEATS
"Witches, Fairy Doctors", Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry
Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?
DOUGLAS ADAMS
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
You must have read in stories of people who get to Fairyland, and I think you will notice that in the stories written by people who know anything about it (and you know how easily these are distinguished from the others) there are always two ways of getting to Fairyland, and only two: one is by mistake, and the other is by a spell. In the first way to Fairyland is to lose your way, and this is one of the best ways of getting there; but it is dangerous, because if you get there that way you offend the fairies. It is better to get there by a spell. But the inconvenience of that is that you are blindfolded so as not to be allowed to remember the way there or back again. When you get there by a spell, one of the people from Fairyland takes you in charge. They prefer to do it when you are asleep, but they are quite game to do it at other times if they think it worth their while.
HILAIRE BELLOC
"The Way to Fairyland", On Something
The fairies are, of course, visible to them, and many a new-built house have they bid the owner pull down because it lay on the fairies' road.
W. B. YEATS
"Witches, Fairy Doctors", Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry
They are fairies; he that speaks to them shall die:
I'll wink and couch: no man their works must eye.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Merry Wives of Windsor
Of course you don't believe in fairies. You're fifteen. You think I believed in fairies at fifteen? Took me until I was at least a hundred and forty. Hundred and fifty, maybe. Anyway, he wasn't a fairy. He was a librarian. All right?
NEIL GAIMAN
Fables & Reflections
The old women are most learned, but will not so readily be got to talk, for the fairies are very secretive, and much resent being talked of; and are there not many stories of old women who were nearly pinched into their graves or numbed with fairy blasts?
W. B. YEATS
introduction, Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry
They were beautiful beyond words, beautiful beyond understanding. So beautiful, I wanted to tear out my heart and hand it over, because after seeing them, I surely wouldn't have any more use for it.
SARAH ZETTEL
Dust Girl
"You must first understand," said I, "where Fairyland is: it lies a little way farther than the farthest hill you can see. It lies, in fact, just beyond that hill. The frontiers of it are sometimes a little doubtful in any landscape, because the landscape is confused, but if on the extreme limits of the horizon you see a long line of hills bounding your view exactly, then you may be perfectly certain that on the other side of those hills is Fairyland. There are times of the day and of the weather when the sky over Fairyland can be clearly perceived, for it has a different colour from any other kind of sky. That is where Fairyland is. It is not on an island, as some have pretended, still less is it under the earth--a ridiculous story, for there it is all dark."
HILAIRE BELLOC
"The Way to Fairyland", On Something
Bright Eyes, Light Eyes! Daughter of a Fay!
I had not been a married wife a twelvemonth and a day,
I had not nursed my little one a month upon my knee,
When down among the blue bell banks rose elfins three times three:
They gripped me by the raven hair, I could not cry for fear,
They put a hempen rope around my waist and dragged me here;
They made me sit and give thee suck as mortal mothers can,
Bright Eyes, Light Eyes! strange and weak and wan!
ROBERT BUCHANAN
"The Faery Foster-Mother"
Or fairy elves,
Whose midnight revels by a forest side
Or fountain, some belated peasant sees,
Or dreams he sees, while overhead the Moon
Sits arbitress, and nearer to the Earth
Wheels her pale course; they, on their mirth and dance
Intent, with jocund music charm his ear;
At once with joy and fear his heart rebounds.
JOHN MILTON
Paradise Lost
At the top end you had some fairies squeeing at supersonic pitches; fairies thought all this military stuff was pretty silly, but they went along with it for the same reason that fairies ever did anything, namely, for the lulz.
LEV GROSSMAN
The Magician's Land
I've always thought fairies are like mushrooms, you trip over them when you're not thinking about them, but they're hard to spot when you're searching for them.
JO WALTON
Among Others
Few humans see fairies or hear their music, but many find fairy rings of dark grass, scattered with toadstools, left by their dancing feet.
JUDY ALLEN
Fantasy Encyclopedia
Whenever a child says "I don't believe in fairies" there's a little fairy somewhere that falls right down dead.
J. M. BARRIE
Peter Pan
Do you believe in fairies? If you believe clap your hands. Don't let Tinker die.
J. M. BARRIE
Peter Pan