Nursery Rhyme Quotes

“Reluctantly, I pulled out my necklace and showed it to them.

Samuel frowned. The little figure was stylized; I suppose he couldn't tell what it was at first.

"A dog?" asked Zee, staring at my necklace.

"A lamb," I said defensively, tucking it safely back under my shirt. "Because one of Christ's names is 'The Lamb of God.'"

Samuel's shoulders shook slightly. "I can see it now, Mercy holding a roomful of vampire at bay with her glowing sheep."

I gave his shoulder a hard push, aware of the heat climbing to my cheeks, but it didn't help. He sang in a soft taunting voice, "Mercy had a little lamb...”
― Patricia Briggs, Moon Called

“One little Indian left all alone, he went out and hanged himself and then there were none.”
― Agatha Christie, And Then There Were None

“Rockabye Baby, in the treetop
Dont you know a treetop
is no safe place to rock?
And who put you up there,
and your cradle too?
Baby,
I think someone down here
has got it in for you!”
― Shel Silverstein

“They dined on mince, and slices of quince
Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
They danced by the light of the moon.”
― Edward Lear, The Owl and the Pussycat

“Let’s all forsake,
The Land of Wake,
And break for the Land of Nod.

Where we can try,
To touch the sky,
Or dance beneath the sod.

A toll for the living,
A toll for the lost,
A toll for the wise ones,
Who tally the cost,

So let’s escape,
Due south of Wake,
And make for the Land of Nod.”
― Neal Shusterman, Thunderhead

“Snow White one, Snow White two,
Sorrow is coming out for you.
Snow White three, Snow White four,
Black as night, go lock your door.
Snow White five, Snow White six,
Blood red lips and crucifix
Snow White seven, Snow White eight,
White as snow, don’t stay out late.
Snow White Nine, Snow White ten,
Snow White now killed snow white then”
― Cameron Jace, Snow White Sorrow

“A nursery rhyme shapes your bones and nerves, and it shapes your mind. They are powerful, nursery rhymes, and immensely old, and not toys, even though they are for children." "But they make no sense!" Summer protested "Ah, well," said Ben. "Sometimes sense hides behind walls. You must find a window and stick your head right in before you can see it.”
― Katherine Catmull, Summer and Bird

“Perhaps you can burrow down into the turf and make from the moss a quilt, as the rhyme goes, but I cannot."*

*Pillows made of stones,
Bed of old kings' bones,
Quilt of moss and earth,
Deep beneath the turf,
Sleeps the faerie child,
Dreaming of the wild,
Hidden and unknown.
--- From "Now the Faeries Sleep," a nursery rhyme originating in Kent, c. 1700.”
― Heather Fawcett, Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands

“Sing a song of Tar Ponds City, party full of lies! Four and twenty liars, seventeen hands caught in pies! When the pie was cut, Hugh Briss began to sing! Wasn't that a stonewall rat to set before the Fossil's ding?”
― Beatrice Rose Roberts, Twin Loyalties: From The Chronicles Of Tar Ponds City

“Yan, tan, tethera, pethera, pimp,
Sethera, lethera, hovera, covera, dik;
Yan-a-dik, tan-a-dik, tethera-dik, pethera-dik, bumfit,
Yan-a-bumfit, tan-a-bumfit, tethera-bumfit, pethera-bumfit, figgit.”
― Marc Vyvyan-Jones, The Barefoot Book of Rhymes Around the Year

“C" is for colonies
Rightly we boast
that of all the great nations
Great Britain has most!”
― Mrs. Ernest Ames, An ABC for Baby Patriots

“Like Humpty Dumpty, in the old nursery rhyme, putting the country back together again would not be easy. This feeling of separation and alienation was not a passing thought but lived into the next century.”
― George Levy, To Die in Chicago: Confederate Prisoners at Camp Douglas, 1862-65

“Thought the world of you, did Kitten. Wouldn't hear a word against you; wouldn't even admit you can't drive well enough for the F.H.C. That shows you! Always seemed to me she only thought of pleasing you. If she took a fancy to do something she shouldn't, only had to tell her you wouldn't like it, and she'd abandon it on the instant. Used to put me in mind of that rhyme, or whatever it was, I learned when I was a youngster. Something about loving and giving: that was Kitten!”
― Georgette Heyer, Friday's Child

“if you so much as make a single joke right now or butcher a playground nursery rhyme about trees and kissing and baby carriages, I'll let myself into your apartment and use your comic book collection as kindling. Capiche?”
― Alexandria Bellefleur, Written in the Stars

“Sir Brian had a battleaxe with great big knobs on. He went among the villagers and blipped them on the head.”
― A.A. Milne, The Complete Tales & Poems of Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne

“I do not love thee, Doctor Fell,
The reason why I cannot tell,”
― John Barlett, Familiar Quotations

“She crossed her legs and kicked out her feet, clad in thick wool socks and boots big enough to house a little old lady.”
― Drew Magary, The Hike

“But where are the socks in the morning, Mom?
Not outside in the hall.
No matter how long I look for them
I can’t find any at all.”
― Marie Blair, Bobby and the Monsters

“Mom laughed and said, “It’s just Rocky Plum.”
“Who in the world is that?”
― Marie Blair, Bobby and the Monsters

“And now I wake up

Only to realise I’m still asleep.
I sing a nursery rhyme,

Pray the Lord my soul to keep.”
― Soroosh Shahrivar, Letter 19

“Walking through the birch grove, keep your head
Or the whitefingers touch you and then you're dead!”
― Molly Ringle, Lava Red Feather Blue

“He hated songs like that, the kinds that should stay in nursery rhymes and bedtime stories. Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum… He was plagued by them.”
― Emory R. Frie, Giant Country

“Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
Do you know that’s what you are?
Up above the world, you’ll fly.
Like a diamond in the sky.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
Don’t forget that’s what you are.”
― NA Leigh, Mr. Hinkle's Verum Ink: the navy blue book

“Boys and girls come out to play...'"
"'The moon doth shine as bright as day!'" Rapunzel finished.
She thought of the bright, cold winter full moon that cast a light so strong that windows in her tower lit up like magic, and instead of sunbeams, blue moonbeams traced the floor. She would run to the tower window....
Leave your supper and leave your sleep...
... and the whole world would be white and blue, as bright as daytime, but with a glowing, magical scrim. Rapunzel had felt like she could dive into it, fly over the whole world in its strange state.
And join your playfellows in the street.
Her hair began to glow.”
― Liz Braswell, What Once Was Mine

“For the first time ever Kya walked alone toward the village of Barkley Cove to buy groceries - this little piggy went to market.”
― Delia Owens, Where the Crawdads Sing

“It's a little bit sad, when you seem very near
To adventures and things of that sort,
Which nearly begin, and then don't; and you know
It is only because you are short.”
― Amy Lowell, A Dome Of Many Colored Glass

“Twinkle twinkle little star,
I know exactly what you are.
Nursery rhyme for humankind,
Descending all from Africa.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Bulletproof Backbone: Injustice Not Allowed on My Watch

“Spring-Heeled Jack Is In The Lane by Stewart Stafford

Go indoors, children, before dark falls,
A fiend comes hideous and inhumane,
Tell your mother not to answer the door,
For Spring-Heeled Jack is in the lane.

Is it spectre, beast or demon?
A trick of light to fool the brain?
Blue flames spew from hellish maw,
Spring-Heeled Jack growls in the lane.

No one can unsee its monstrous face,
Nor its claws of steel that bloodstain,
Its haunting cackle freezes victims,
Spring-Heeled Jack leaps from the lane.

© Stewart Stafford, 2024. All rights reserved.”
― Stewart Stafford

“Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me." --nursery rhyme, and the first lie we learned in school”
― Amy Matayo, They Call Her Dirty Sally