The Velveteen Rabbit, written by Margery Williams Bianco, is a beloved children’s book first published in 1922. It tells the story of a plush rabbit’s desire to become real through the love of its owner. The book is renowned for its exploration of love, reality, and the vagaries of being itself. The profoundness can be witnessed in its quotes, which we have gathered here. These are imbued with a sense of innocence, yet they touch upon deeply human existential realities and emotional experiences.
- “Real isn’t how you are made,’ said the Skin Horse. ‘It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”
- “It doesn’t happen all at once,’ said the Skin Horse. ‘You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept.”
- “Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”
- “When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.”
- “He longed to become Real, to know what it felt like; and yet the idea of growing shabby and losing his eyes and whiskers was rather sad. He wished that he could become it without these uncomfortable things happening to him.”
- “What is REAL?” asked the Rabbit one day. “Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?”
- “There was a person called Nana who ruled the nursery. Sometimes she took no notice of the playthings lying about, and sometimes, for no reason whatever, she went swooping about like a great wind and hustled them away in cupboards.”
- “He didn’t mind how he looked to other people, because the nursery magic had made him Real, and when you are Real shabbiness doesn’t matter.”
- “And then, one day, the Boy was ill.”
- “Weeks passed, and the little Rabbit grew very old and shabby, but the Boy loved him just as much.”
- “He thought of the Skin Horse, so wise and gentle, and all that he had told him. Of what use was it to be loved and lose one’s beauty and become Real if it all ended like this?”
- “A tear, a real tear, trickled down his little shabby velvet nose and fell to the ground.”
- “And a strange thing happened. For where a tear had fallen a flower grew out of the ground, a mysterious flower, not at all like any that grew in the garden.”
- “It was a new toy and it was so beautiful.”
- “And so time went on, and the little Rabbit was very happy–so happy that he never noticed how his beautiful velveteen fur was getting shabbier and shabbier .”
- “For at least two hours the Boy loved him, and then Aunts and Uncles came to dinner, and there was a great rustling of tissue paper and unwrapping of parcels, and in the excitement of looking at all the new presents the Velveteen Rabbit was forgotten.”
- “And then, one day, quite suddenly, it happened. The Boy’s Uncle made him a new sailing boat, and he took it down to the pond to try it.”
- “‘You must have your old Bunny!’ she said. ‘Fancy all that fuss for a toy!'”
- “As he grew along in years, and saw his child companions make their great Journeys, the Toy Rabbit grew shabby and less velveteen.”
- “I took a look at my rabbit figure, cradling it in my hands as I had the real rabbit so many years before.”
These profound quotes from The Velveteen Rabbit communicate powerful messages about the meaning of love, existence, and reality. The story’s depiction of transformation through affection and time is, in many ways, a poignant reflection of the human condition. These lines captivate us by speaking to our inner child and reminding us of the wonders of being and becoming. They hold a mirror to our experiences, permitting us to see the beauty and pain of growth.