Hans Christian Andersen Quotes
Just living is not enough... one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.
The whole world is a series of miracles, but we're so used to them we call them ordinary things.
To move, to breathe, to fly, to float, To gain all while you give, To roam the roads of lands remote, To travel is to live.
Nothing is too high for a man to reach, but he must climb with care and confidence
Everything you look at can become a fairy tale and you can get a story from everything you touch.
But a mermaid has no tears, and therefore she suffers so much more.
Being born in a duck yard does not matter, if only you are hatched from a swan's egg.
We cannot expect to be happy always ... by experiencing evil as well as good we become wise.
My life will be the best illustration of all my work.
The wiser a man becomes, the more he will read, and those who are wisest read most.
Human beings, on the contrary, have a soul which lives forever, lives after the body has been turned to dust. It rises up through the clear, pure air beyond the glittering stars.
But shouldn't all of us on earth give the best we have to others and offer whatever is in our power?
It was clear to me, as I glanced back over my earlier life, that a loving Providence watched over me, that all was directed for me by a higher power.
A mermaid has not an immortal soul, nor can she obtain one unless she wins the love of a human being. On the power of another hangs her eternal destiny.
If you looked down to the bottom of my soul, you would understand fully the source of my longing and – pity me. Even the open, transparent lake has its unknown depths, which no divers know.
Many, many steeples would have to be stacked one on top of another to reach from the bottom to the surface of the sea.
When the bird of the heart begins to sing, too often will reason stop up her ears.
Then he rustled his feathers, curved his slender neck, and cried joyfully, from the depths of his heart, 'I never dreamed of such happiness as this, while I was an ugly duckling.
Happy domestic life is like a beautiful summer's evening; the heart is filled with peace; and everything around derives a peculiar glory.
Most of the people who will walk after me will be children, so make the beat keep time with short steps.
Almighty God, thee only have I; thou steerest my fate, I must give myself up to thee! Give me a livelihood! Give me a bride! My blood wants love, as my heart does!
Each time I think that the song is ended ... something higher and better begins for me.
To be born in a duck's nest, in a farmyard, is of no consequence to a bird, if it is hatched from a swan's egg.
Death walks faster than the wind and never returns what he has taken.
I know what you want. It is very stupid of you, but you shall have your way, and it will bring you to sorrow, my pretty princess. - The sea witch.
The naive was only a part of my fairy tales; humour was the real salt in them.
At first she was overjoyed that he would be with her, but then she recalled that human people could not live under the water, and he could only visit her father's palace as a dead man.
How little do the wisest among us know of that which is so important to us all.
Every town, like every man, has its own countenance; they have a common likeness and yet are different; one keeps in his mind all their peculiar touches.
Well, yes: people write poems when they are in love, but a wise man will not print them.
One cannot quite trust the word of potted flowers," thought the butterfly; "they have too much to do with men.