Quotes from The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales

“Some men are born to good luck: all they do or try to do comes right—all that falls to them is so much gain—all their geese are swans—all their cards are trumps—toss them which way you will, they will always, like poor puss, alight upon their legs, and only move on so much the faster. The world may very likely not always think of them as they think of themselves, but what care they for the world? what can it know about the matter?”
― Jacob Grimm, quote from The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales

“Lina said to Fundevogel: 'Never leave me, and I will never leave you.' Fundevogel said: 'Neither now, nor ever.' Then said Lina: 'Do you become a rose-tree, and I the rose upon it.”
― Jacob Grimm, quote from The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales

“A certain king had a beautiful garden, and in the garden stood a tree which bore golden apples. These apples were always counted, and about the time when they began to grow ripe it was found that every night one of them was gone. The king became very angry at this, and ordered the gardener to keep watch all night under the tree. The gardener set his eldest son to watch; but about twelve o'clock he fell asleep, and in the morning another of the apples was missing. Then the second son was ordered to watch; and at midnight he too fell asleep, and in the morning another apple was gone. Then the third son offered to keep watch; but the gardener at first would not let him, for fear some harm should come to him: however, at last he consented, and the young man laid himself under the tree to watch. As the clock struck twelve he heard a rustling noise in the air, and a bird came flying that was of pure gold; and as it was snapping at one of the apples with its beak, the gardener's son jumped up and shot an arrow at it. But the arrow did the bird no harm; only it dropped a golden feather from its tail, and then flew away. The golden feather was brought to the king in the morning, and all the council was called together. Everyone agreed that it was worth more than all the wealth of the kingdom: but the king said, 'One feather is of no use to me, I must have the whole bird.”
― Jacob Grimm, quote from The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales

“Then her envious heart had peace, as much as an envious heart can have.”
― Jacob Grimm, quote from The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales

“In olden times, when wishing still helped....”
- The Frog King | The Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm”
― Jacob Grimm, quote from The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales

“Before the castle gate all was as the fox had said: so the son went in and found the chamber where the golden bird hung in a wooden cage, and below”
― Jacob Grimm, quote from The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales

“Time passed on; and as the eldest son did not come back, and no tidings were heard of him, the second son set out, and the same thing happened to him. He met the fox, who gave him the good advice: but when he came to the two inns, his eldest brother was standing at the window where the merrymaking was, and called to him to come in; and he could not withstand the temptation, but went in, and forgot the golden bird and his country in the same manner.”
― Jacob Grimm, quote from The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales

“One feather is of no use to me, I must have the whole bird.”
― Jacob Grimm, quote from The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales

“A merchant, who had three daughters, was once setting out upon a journey; but before he went he asked each daughter what gift he should bring back for her. The eldest wished for pearls; the second for jewels; but the third, who was called Lily, said, 'Dear father, bring me a rose.' Now it was no easy task to find a rose, for it was the middle of winter; yet as she was his prettiest daughter, and was very fond of flowers, her father said he would try what he could do. So he kissed all three, and bid them goodbye.”
― Jacob Grimm, quote from The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales

“A long time ago there lived a king who was famed for his wisdom through all the land. Nothing was hidden from him, and it seemed as if news of the most secret things was brought to him through the air. But he had a strange custom; every day after dinner, when the table was cleared, and no one else was present, a trusty servant had to bring him one more dish. It was covered, however, and even the servant did not know what was in it, neither did anyone know, for the king never took off the cover to eat of it until he was quite alone.”
― Jacob Grimm, quote from The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales

“Hansel took his little sister by the hand, and followed the pebbles which shone like newly-coined silver pieces, and showed them the way.”
― Jacob Grimm, quote from The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales

“He dug and ploughed over his piece of land, and then sowed some turnip seed. Soon the seed began to show itself above ground, and there grew on turnip immensely large and thick, which seemed as if it would never have done growing, but was a princess among turnips; and as there had never before been seen such a turnip, so also there has never been such another since.”
― Jacob Grimm, quote from The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales

“Only preserve the love of God in thy heart, and all will go well with thee.”
― Jacob Grimm, quote from The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales

“No debes despreciar a quien te ayudó cuando te encontrabas necesitada.”
― Jacob Grimm, quote from The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales

“window, and every year bore the most beautiful roses, white and red.”
― Jacob Grimm, quote from The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales

“Hans went into the stable, cut out all the calves' and sheep's eyes, and threw them in Gretel's face. Then Gretel became angry, tore herself loose and ran away, and was no longer the bride of Hans.”
― Jacob Grimm, quote from The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales

“wait, I will come with you.' Then they recognized his voice and waited, and when he came up to them suddenly his bearskin fell off, and he stood there a handsome man, clothed all”
― Jacob Grimm, quote from The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales

“A certain king had a beautiful garden, and in the garden stood a tree which bore golden apples. These apples were always counted, and about the time when they began to grow ripe it was found that every night one of them was gone. The king became very angry at this, and ordered the gardener to keep watch all night under the tree.”
― Jacob Grimm, quote from The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales

“When you come to the king, and he asks for the beautiful princess, you must say, "Here she is!" Then he will be very joyful; and you will mount the golden horse that they are to give you, and put out your hand to take leave of them; but shake hands with the princess last. Then lift her quickly on to the horse behind you; clap your spurs to his side, and gallop away as fast as you can.”
― Jacob Grimm, quote from The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales

“his head to be cut off”
― Jacob Grimm, quote from The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales

“He who helped thee when thou wert in trouble ought not afterwards to be despised by thee.”
― Jacob Grimm, quote from The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales

“And as she leaned down to drink, the lock of hair fell from her bosom, and floated away with the water. Now she was so frightened that she did not see it; but her maid saw it, and was very glad, for she knew the charm; and she saw that the poor bride would be in her power, now that she had lost the hair. So when the bride had done drinking, and would have got upon Falada again, the maid said, 'I shall ride upon Falada, and you may have my horse instead'; so she was forced to give up her horse, and soon afterwards to take off her royal clothes and put on her maid's shabby ones.”
― Jacob Grimm, quote from The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales

About the author

Popular quotes

“Byron had learned from a monk he’d met during his graduate work in Japan: The obstacle is the path. Meaning what wouldn’t kill Aria would just make her stronger. But when she imagined moving in with Meredith, a more appropriate quote came to mind: There are some remedies worse than the disease.”
― Sara Shepard, quote from Unbelievable

“Over the millennia the seed of stories planted in the fertile soil of bits and scraps of facts was watered by wishes and began to take root and grow. Eventually, a bountiful fruit of rumors burst forth, to be spread on the wind of whispers that said we hid a fabled hoard of gold. Nothing could convince the believers that it was not true. The truth does not glitter for these people like gold does.”
― Terry Goodkind, quote from Phantom

“the wise may be instructed by a fool”
― François Rabelais, quote from Gargantua and Pantagruel

“Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever. That surrender, even the smallest act of giving up, stays with me. So when I feel like quitting, I ask myself, which would I rather live with?”
― Lance Armstrong, quote from It's Not about the Bike: My Journey Back to Life

“Roads is never the fastest way to get nowhere,” the woman says. “Don’t ye know that?”
― Patrick Ness, quote from Chaos Walking: A Trilogy

Interesting books

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.