A Little Princess Quotes
The 8 most famous lines from Frances Hodgson Burnett’s A Little Princess (1905), each with its speaker and the scene it belongs to. These are the quotes readers underline, copy into essays and put on walls - gathered in one place, explained in a line.
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“I know you by heart. You are inside my heart.”
- Sara Crewe. Chapter I, 'Sara' - Sara tells her father how completely she knows him.
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“Sometimes I do pretend I am a princess.”
- Sara Crewe. Chapter VI, 'The Diamond Mines' - Sara describes her private game.
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“I pretend I am a princess, so that I can try and behave like one.”
- Sara Crewe. Chapter VI, 'The Diamond Mines' - the rule behind Sara's imagining.
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“We are not little gutter children.”
- Sara Crewe. Chapter VI, 'The Diamond Mines' - Sara refuses to let hardship define her and Becky.
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“I should like to be a princess.”
- Sara Crewe. Chapter VI, 'The Diamond Mines' - a wish she is willing to admit.
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“I believe I will begin pretending I am one.”
- Sara Crewe. Chapter VI, 'The Diamond Mines' - Sara turns the wish into a practice.
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“I can invent little things to do for people.”
- Sara Crewe. Chapter VI, 'The Diamond Mines' - Sara's answer to having little money but a lively imagination.
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“To be kind is worth a great deal to other people.”
- Sara Crewe. Chapter XV, 'The Magic' - Sara explains the value of kindness.
Why these lines survive
Frances Hodgson Burnett’s sentences earn their fame by compression: each line carries the whole book’s argument in a form you can carry in your pocket. Read in order, the 8 quotes above also sketch the novel’s shape - the world it opens, the pressure it applies, the note it ends on. If you meet them before the book, nothing is spoiled beyond mood; if you meet them after, each one lands like a place you have been.
Quote collectors: pair this page with the A Little Princess quiz to see which lines actually stuck, the book club questions when you want to argue about them, or how long the reread takes - about 4 hours and 4 minutes at an average pace. If the lines did their job and you want more of the same nerve, the books like A Little Princess list is next.
How to use a quotes page
Three honest uses. Before reading: skim the first two quotes to taste the prose - if the voice does not pull you, the book will not either. During: mark which quote you actually reach in the text, because the distance between famous line and lived scene is where a book keeps its secrets. After: pick the one quote you would defend at dinner and check it against the discussion questions - a quote you can argue about is a quote you understood. What a quotes page is not for is replacing the book; five lines of Frances Hodgson Burnett are an invitation, not a summary.
More quote collections
The Odyssey quotes, Moby-Dick quotes, Don Quixote quotes, Alice in Wonderland quotes - or browse quotes from all 133 classics. Then see which of them stuck on the original book quiz.
Frequently asked questions
What is the most famous quote from A Little Princess?
“I know you by heart. You are inside my heart.” - the line most readers meet first. The full list above gives the scene for every one of the 8.
How many A Little Princess quotes are here?
8, chosen because they are the lines readers actually underline and repeat - each with who says it and where it lands in the book.
Are these quotes explained?
Yes - every quote carries its speaker and a one-line context, because a quote without its scene loses most of its charge.
Can I use these in an essay or post?
Short quoted lines with attribution are standard fair use in essays and posts. Quote accurately, name the author, and you are on solid ground.
Are these A Little Princess quotes word-for-word accurate?
They are checked against the novel as written, not harvested from quote sites - which is why a few famous “lines” you may have seen elsewhere are missing here: many of those come from film adaptations or paraphrase the prose. What is listed above is the book.