Hans Christian Andersen · 803 pages
Rating: (97.8K votes)
“Just living is not enough," said the butterfly, "one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.”
― Hans Christian Andersen, quote from The Complete Fairy Tales
“"Does all the beauty of the world stop when you die?"
"No," said the Old Oak; "it will last much longer - longer than I can even think of."
"Well, then," said the little May-fly, "we have the same time to live; only we reckon differently.”
― Hans Christian Andersen, quote from The Complete Fairy Tales
“She was so young that love was still a game to her. . . . She was being neither fair nor clever, but Babette was only nineteen years old.”
― Hans Christian Andersen, quote from The Complete Fairy Tales
“The good and the beautiful is not forgotten; it lives in legend and in song.”
― Hans Christian Andersen, quote from The Complete Fairy Tales
“The right sort (of story) come of themselves: they tap at my forehead and say 'Here we are.”
― Hans Christian Andersen, quote from The Complete Fairy Tales
“[...] and the pea was put in the museum, where it can still be seen, if no one has stolen it.”
― Hans Christian Andersen, quote from The Complete Fairy Tales
“But he hasn't got anything on," a little child said.”
― Hans Christian Andersen, quote from The Complete Fairy Tales
“But he hasn't got anything on!" the whole town cried out at last.”
― Hans Christian Andersen, quote from The Complete Fairy Tales
“A short time ago"—the Star's "short time ago" is called among men "centuries ago"—"my rays followed a young artist. It was in the city of the Popes, in”
― Hans Christian Andersen, quote from The Complete Fairy Tales
“Then he would cry, but what nobody knows nobody cares for; so he would cry till he was tired, and then fall asleep; and while we are asleep we can feel neither hunger nor thirst. Ah, yes; sleep is a capital invention.”
― Hans Christian Andersen, quote from The Complete Fairy Tales
“looking old witch in the road. Her under-lip hung quite down on her breast, and she stopped and said, “Good”
― Hans Christian Andersen, quote from The Complete Fairy Tales
“And now it worked much more evil than before; for some of these pieces were hardly so large as a grain of sand, and they flew about in the wide world, and when they got into people’s eyes, there they stayed; and then people saw everything perverted, or only had an eye for that which was evil. This happened because the very smallest bit had the same power which the whole mirror had possessed. Some persons even got a splinter in their heart, and then it made one shudder, for their heart became like a lump of ice.”
― Hans Christian Andersen, quote from The Complete Fairy Tales
“out-of-doors there was quite a snow-storm. “It is the white bees that are swarming,” said Kay’s old grandmother. “Do the white bees choose a queen?” asked the little boy; for he knew that the honey-bees always have one. “Yes,” said the grandmother, “she flies where the swarm hangs in the thickest clusters. She is the largest of all; and she can never remain quietly on the earth, but goes up again into the black clouds. Many a winter’s night she flies through the streets of the town, and peeps in at the windows; and they then freeze in so wondrous a manner that they look like flowers.”
― Hans Christian Andersen, quote from The Complete Fairy Tales
“in a single instant, can the consciousness of the sin that has been committed in thoughts, words, and actions of our past life, be unfolded to us. When once the conscience is awakened, it springs up in the heart spontaneously, and God awakens the conscience when we least expect it. Then we can find no excuse for ourselves; the deed is there and bears witness against us.”
― Hans Christian Andersen, quote from The Complete Fairy Tales
“And Kay and Gerda looked in each other’s eyes, and all at once they understood the old hymn: “The rose in the valley is blooming so sweet, And angels descend there the children to greet.” There sat the two grown-up persons; grown-up, and yet children; children at least in heart; and it was summer-time; summer, glorious summer!”
― Hans Christian Andersen, quote from The Complete Fairy Tales
“child, looking through bubbles into the future; now those bright bubbles were all behind him. Once more he had”
― Hans Christian Andersen, quote from The Complete Fairy Tales
“came to anything, very remarkable; and there they are for you." So saying, he gave Joanna the gingerbread man, who was still quite whole—and to Knud the broken maiden; but the children had been so much impressed by the story, that they had not the heart to eat the”
― Hans Christian Andersen, quote from The Complete Fairy Tales
“only that the mermaids have no tears, and therefore they suffer more.”
― Hans Christian Andersen, quote from The Complete Fairy Tales
“and from that day, even till now, all the storks have been called Peter. The”
― Hans Christian Andersen, quote from The Complete Fairy Tales
Hans Christian Andersen
Born place: in Odense, Denmark
Born date April 2, 1805
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“The faculty of re-solution is possibly much invigorated by mathematical study, and especially by that highest branch of it which, unjustly, and merely on account of its retrograde operations, has been called, as if par excellence, analysis. Yet to calculate is not in itself to analyse. A chess-player, for example, does the one without effort at the other. It follows that the game of chess, in its effects upon mental character, is greatly misunderstood. I am not now writing a treatise, but simply prefacing a somewhat peculiar narrative by observations very much at random; I will, therefore, take occasion to assert that the higher powers of the reflective intellect are more decidedly and more usefully tasked by the unostentatious game of draughts than by a the elaborate frivolity of chess. In this latter, where the pieces have different and bizarre motions, with various and variable values, what is only complex is mistaken (a not unusual error) for what is profound. The attention is here called powerfully into play. If it flag for an instant, an oversight is committed resulting in injury or defeat. The possible moves being not only manifold but involute, the chances of such oversights are multiplied; and in nine cases out of ten it is the more concentrative rather than the more acute player who conquers. In draughts, on the contrary, where the moves are unique and have but little variation, the probabilities of inadvertence are diminished, and the mere attention being left comparatively unemployed, what advantages are obtained by either party are obtained by superior acumen. To be less abstract, let us suppose a game of draughts where the pieces are reduced to four kings, and where, of course, no oversight is to be expected. It is obvious that here the victory can be decided (the players being at all equal) only by some recherché movement, the result of some strong exertion of the intellect. Deprived of ordinary resources, the analyst throws himself into the spirit of his opponent, identifies himself therewith, and not unfrequently sees thus, at a glance, the sole methods (sometime indeed absurdly simple ones) by which he may seduce into error or hurry into miscalculation.”
― Edgar Allan Poe, quote from The Murders in the Rue Morgue: The Dupin Tales
“Rain slips through your fingers as easily as words blow away in the wind, and yet it has the power to destroy your whole world.”
― Karen Maitland, quote from Company of Liars
“if I want a crown I must go and hunt it for myself.”
― Rudyard Kipling, quote from The Man Who Would Be King
“I think we should all earn our place in the world. [...] We owe the world something. We owe the world everything.”
― Rachel Vincent, quote from With All My Soul
“You are my Guardian Angel, Maddy,” a voice said, but it was far away from her.”
― Scott Speer, quote from Immortal City
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