Kristin Lavransdatter Quotes

“But I didn’t realize then that the consequence of sin is that you have to trample on other people.”
― Sigrid Undset, Kristin Lavransdatter

“God will find you,” said the priest quietly. “Stay calm and do not flee from Him who has been seeking you before you even existed in your mother’s womb.”
― Sigrid Undset, Kristin Lavransdatter

“Are you so arrogant that you think yourself capable of sinning so badly that God’s mercy is not great enough? . . .”
― Sigrid Undset, Kristin Lavransdatter

“For I've realized more and more with each year I've lived: There is no worthier work for the person who has been geared with the ability to see even a small part of God's mercy than to serve Him and to keep vigil and to pray for those people whose sight is still clouded by the shadow of worldly matters.”
― Sigrid Undset, Kristin Lavransdatter

“the world is just as harsh a taskmaster as any other lord, and in the end it’s a lord without mercy.”
― Sigrid Undset, Kristin Lavransdatter

“All that had happened and would happen was meant to be. Everything happens as it is meant to be.”
― Sigrid Undset, Kristin Lavransdatter

“Do you know who 'twas that first knew our Lord had caused Himself to be born? 'Twas the cock; he saw the star, and so he said–all the beasts could talk Latin in those days; he cried: 'Christus natus est!' "
He crowed these words so like a cock that Kristin fell to laughing heartily. And it did her good to laugh, for all the strange things Brother Edvin had just been saying had laid a burden of awe on her heart.
The monk laughed himself:
"Ay, and when the ox heard that, he began to low: 'Ubi, ubi, ubi.'
"But the goat bleated, and said: 'Betlem, Betlem, Betlem.'
"And the sheep so longed to see Our Lady and her Son that she baa-ed out at once: 'Eamus, eamus!'
"And the new-born calf that lay in the straw, raised itself and stood upon its feet. 'Volo, volo, volo!' it said.”
― Sigrid Undset, Kristin Lavransdatter

“Yes, well... I suppose the man who owns nothing is free."
Gunnulf replied, "A man's possessions own him more than he owns them.”
― Sigrid Undset, Kristin Lavransdatter

“Dear sister—all other love is merely a reflection of the heavens in the puddles of a muddy road. You will become sullied too if you allow yourself to sink into it. But if you always remember that it’s a reflection of the light from that other home, then you will rejoice at its beauty and take good care that you do not destroy it by churning up the mire at the bottom.”
― Sigrid Undset, Kristin Lavransdatter

“She walked as if through a forest. The pillars were furrowed like ancient trees, and into the woods the light seeped, colorful and as clear as song, through the stained-glass windows. High overhead animals and people frolicked in the stone foliage, and angels played their instruments. At an even higher, more dizzying height, the vaults of the ceiling arched upward, lifting the church toward God ... The song cut through her like a blinding light. Now she saw how deep in the dust she lay.”
― Sigrid Undset, Kristin Lavransdatter

“you mustn’t believe, Kristin, that there has ever been a priest who has not had to guard himself against the Fiend at the same time as he tried to protect the lambs from the wolf.”
― Sigrid Undset, Kristin Lavransdatter

“Help me, Gunnulf,” begged Kristin. She was white to the very edge of her lips. “I don’t know my own will.” “Then say: Thy will be done,” replied the priest softly.”
― Sigrid Undset, Kristin Lavransdatter

“Surely she had never asked God for anything except that He should let her have her will. And every time she had been granted what she asked for—for the most part. Now here she sat with a contrite heart—not because she had sinned against God but because she was unhappy that she had been allowed to follow her will to the road’s end.”
― Sigrid Undset, Kristin Lavransdatter

“I'm not to blame, Ramborg, if a man's heart is created in such a fashion that whatever is inscribed on it when it's young and fresh is carved deeper than all the runes that are later etched.”
― Sigrid Undset, Kristin Lavransdatter

“Christ, you who were crucified! Now I have given up everything that could bind me. And I have placed myself in your hands, if you would find my life worthy enough to be freed from its servitude to Satan. Take me so that I may feel that I am your slave, for then I will possess you in return.”
― Sigrid Undset, Kristin Lavransdatter

“But man proposes, God disposes.”
― Sigrid Undset, Kristin Lavransdatter

“She had finally come so far that she seemed to be seeing her own life from the uppermost summit of a mountain pass. Now her path led down into the darkening valley, but first she had been allowed to see that in the solitude of the cloister and in the doorway of death someone was waiting for her who had always seen the lives of people the way villages look from a mountain crest. He had seen sin and sorrow, love and hatred in their hearts, the way the wealthy estates and poor hovels, the bountiful acres and the abandoned wastelands are all borne by the same earth. And he had come down among them, his feet had wandered among the lands, stood in the castles and in huts, gathering the sorrows and sins of the rich and the poor, and lifting them high up with him on the cross." (1081)”
― Sigrid Undset, Kristin Lavransdatter

“But it looked as if Brother Edvin had become so wrinkled simply from smiling at people. Kristin thought she had never seen anyone who looked so cheerful or so kind. He seemed to carry within him a luminous and secret joy, and she was able to share it whenever he spoke.”
― Sigrid Undset, Kristin Lavransdatter

“The blood that ran down from the cross in redemption for all sins and penance for all sorrows—that was the visible sign.”
― Sigrid Undset, Kristin Lavransdatter

“Stay calm and do not flee from Him who has been seeking you before you even existed in your mother’s womb.”
― Sigrid Undset, Kristin Lavransdatter

“Because no one is good without God. And we can do nothing good without Him. So it's futile to regret a good deed, Ulf, for the good you have done cannot be taken back; even if all the mountains should fall, it would still stand.”
― Sigrid Undset, Kristin Lavransdatter

“And I see you still don’t realize, no matter how many times you’ve witnessed it, that you can’t always manage alone everything that you’ve taken on. But I will help you to undertake this burden.”
― Sigrid Undset, Kristin Lavransdatter

“As your pierced hands were stretched out on the cross, O precious Lord of Heaven. No matter how far a soul might stray from the path of righteousness, the pierced hands were stretched out, yearning. Only one thing was needed: that the sinful soul should turn toward the open embrace, freely, like a child who goes to his father and not like a thrall who is chased home to his stern master.”
― Sigrid Undset, Kristin Lavransdatter

“Her father’s marvelous gentleness was not because he lacked a keen enough perception of the faults and wretchedness of others; it came from his constant searching of his own heart before God, crushing it in repentance over his own failings. No,”
― Sigrid Undset, Kristin Lavransdatter

“Prayers, fasts, everything he had practiced because he had been taught to do so, suddenly seemed new to him—weapons in a glorious war for which he longed. Perhaps he would become a monk—or a priest”
― Sigrid Undset, Kristin Lavransdatter

“His heart sang in his breast; his soul felt like a bride in the arms of the bridegroom. He realized full well that this would not last. No man could live on earth in this manner for long. And he had received each hour of that bright springtime like a pledge—a merciful promise that would strengthen his endurance when the skies darkened over him and the road led down into a dark ravine, through roaring rivers and cold snowdrifts.”
― Sigrid Undset, Kristin Lavransdatter

“Лавранс помолчал немного, прежде чем ответить:
– Да, все это кажется очень красивым, когда об этом слышишь в рыцарских сагах каких-нибудь южных стран. Но мы сейчас не в Бретани, и вы, вероятно, тоже потребовали бы большего от человека, которого собираетесь взять в зятья, чем способности заставлять вашу дочь падать без чувств от любви к нему на глазах у всех…”
― Сигрид Унсет, Кристин, дочь Лавранса

“Whenever she held him in her arms, she noticed that the boy’s mother would keep a jealous eye on the two of them and would come to take him away as soon as she deemed it proper and then possessively put him to her breast, hugging him greedily. Then it occurred to Kristin Lavransdatter in a new way that the interpreters of God’s words were right. Life on this earth was irredeemably tainted by strife; in this world, wherever people mingled, producing new descendants, allowing themselves to be drawn together by physical love and loving their own flesh, sorrows of the heart and broken expectations were bound to occur as surely as the frost appears in the autumn. Both life and death would separate friends in the end, as surely as the winter separates the tree from its leaves.”
― Sigrid Undset, Kristin Lavransdatter

“He felt as if the roots of his own life were intertwined with those of his brothers and sisters, somewhere deep down in the dark earth. Every blow that struck, every injury that ate away at the marrow of one of them was felt by all.”
― Sigrid Undset, Kristin Lavransdatter

“Then it occurred to me that many of these people had suffered more than Christ himself. “I pondered this until I felt that my heart and mind would burst. But finally I received the light that I had prayed and begged for. And I realized that just as they had suffered, so should we all have the courage to suffer. Who would be so foolish not to accept pain and torment if this was the way to a faithful and steadfast bridegroom who waits with open arms, his breast bloody and burning with love.”
― Sigrid Undset, Kristin Lavransdatter