Hans Christian Andersen > Quotes

“Just living is not enough," said the butterfly, "one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.”
― Hans Christian Andersen

“Where words fail, music speaks.”
― Hans Christian Andersen

“Every man's life is a fairy tale, written by God's fingers.”
― Hans Christian Andersen

“Life itself is the most wonderful fairy tale.”
― Hans Christian Andersen

“To travel is to live.”
― Hans Christian Andersen

“Life is like a beautiful melody, only the lyrics are messed up.”
― Hans Christian Andersen

“Then she saw a star fall, leaving behind it a bright streak of fire. “Someone is dying,” thought the little girl, for her old grandmother, the only one who had ever loved her, and who was now dead, had told her that when a star falls, a soul was going up to God.”
― Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Match Girl

“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.”
― Hans Christian Andersen

“To be of use to the world is the only way to be happy. ”
― Hans Christian Andersen

“Sharp knives seemed to cut her delicate feet, yet she hardly felt them, so deep was the pain in her heart. She could not forget that this was the last night she would ever see the one for whom she had left her home and family, had given up her beautiful voice, and had day by day endured unending torment, of which he knew nothing at all. An eternal night awaited her. ”
― Hans Christian Andersen

“But a mermaid has no tears, and therefore she suffers so much more.”
― Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid

“The whole world is a series of miracles, but we're so used to them we call them ordinary things. - "The whole world is a series of miracles, but we're so used to them we call them ordinary things." From "The Puppet-show Man.”
― Hans Christian Andersen

“I only appear to be dead.”
― Hans Christian Andersen

“Everything you look at can become a fairy tale and you can get a story from everything you touch.”
― Hans Christian Andersen

“If human beings are not drowned, asked the little mermaid, can they live forever? do they never die as we do here in the sea? Yes, replied the old lady, they must also die, and their term of life is even shorter than ours. We sometimes live to three hundred years, but when we cease to exist here we only become the foam on the surface of the water, and we have not even a grave down here of those we love. We have not immortal souls, we shall never live again; but, like the green sea-weed, when once it has been cut off, we can never flourish more. 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. As we rise out of the water, and behold all the land of the earth, so do they rise to unknown and glorious regions which we shall never see.
Why have not we an immortal soul? asked the little mermaid mournfully; I would give gladly all the hundreds of years that I have to live, to be a human being only for one day, and to have the hope of knowing the happiness of that glorious world above the stars.
You must not think of that, said the old woman; we feel ourselves to be much happier and much better off than human beings.
So I shall die, said the little mermaid, and as the foam of the sea I shall be driven about never again to hear the music of the waves, or to see the pretty flowers nor the red sun...”
― Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid

“Brave soldier, never fear.
Even though your death is near.”
― Hans Christian Andersen, The Steadfast Tin Soldier

“Every man's life is a fairy tale written by God's Fingers.”
― Hans Christian Andersen

“‎"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, The Complete Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales

“Travelling expands the mind rarely.”
― Hans Christian Andersen

“Each soldier was the living image of the others, but there was one who was a bit different. He had only one leg, for he was the last to be cast and the tin had run out. Still, there he stood, just as steadfast on his one leg as the others on their two; and he is the tin soldier we are going to hear about.”
― Hans Christian Andersen

“To move, to breath, to fly, to float,
To gain all while you give,
To roam the roads of lands remote,
To travel is to live.”
― Hans Christian Andersen

“Enjoy life. There's plenty of time to be dead.”
― Hans Christian Andersen

“Now, if we only had as many casks of butter as there are people here, then I would eat lots of butter!”
― Hans Christian Andersen

“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!”
― Hans Christian Andersen

“He found whole figures which represented a written word; but he never could manage to represent just the word he wanted - that word was 'eternity', and the Snow Queen had said, "If you can discover that figure, you shall be your own master, and I will make you a present of the whole world and a pair of new skates." But he could not find it out.”
― Hans Christian Andersen

“What ticks in the clock, beats here with strong strokes of the hammer. It is Bloodless, who drank life from human thought and thereby got limbs of metals, stone and wood; it is Bloodless, who by human thought gained strength, which man himself does not physically possess. Bloodless reigns in Motala, and through the large foundries and factories he extends his hard limbs, whose joints and parts consist of wheel within wheel, chains, bars, and thick iron wires.”
― Hans Christian Andersen, Pictures of Sweden

“In the days of Moses and the prophets such a man would have been counted among the wise men of the land; in the Middle Ages he would have been burned at the stake.”
― Hans Christian Andersen

“And the Top spoke no more of his old love; for that dies away when the beloved objects has lain for five years in a roof gutter and got wet through; yes, one does not know her again when one meets her in the dust box.”
― Hans Christian Andersen, The Top And The Ball

“At leve er ikke nok. Solskin, frihed og en lille blomst må man ha”
― Hans Christian Andersen

“No one would allow that he could not see these much-admired clothes; because, in doing so, he would have declared himself either a simpleton or unfit of his office.”
― Hans Christian Andersen

“Yes, it is wonderful to be alive! Indeed, the Bottle inwardly sang of all this, as do young poets, who frequently also know nothing about the things of which they sing." From The Bottle Neck”
― Hans Christian Andersen

“ele pediu-me para rezar, mas eu só me lembrava da tabuada”
― Hans Christian Andersen

“Wiśnie były wyborne, a Gerda głodna, więc jadła, uśmiechając się z zadowoleniem, gdy staruszka złotym grzebieniem czesała jej złote włosy. Czesała je długo, w dziwnym blasku czerwonych i niebieskich szybek, a Gerda zapomniała o Kaju, babce i rodzicach, bo grzebień był zaczarowany, staruszka zaś była wróżką.”
― Hans Christian Andersen, The Snow Queen