Hans Christian Andersen Quotes

Where words fail, music speaks.

Life is like a beautiful melody, only the lyrics are messed up.

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.

Life itself is the most wonderful fairy tale.

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.

To be of use to the world is the only way to be happy.

Enjoy life. There's plenty of time to be dead.

Every man's life is a fairy tale written by God's fingers.

But a mermaid has no tears, and therefore she suffers so much more.

We cannot expect to be happy always ... by experiencing evil as well as good we become wise.

Being born in a duck yard does not matter, if only you are hatched from a swan's egg.

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?

The sun shines upon good and bad alike.

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.

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.

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.

No, the light is too intense; we do not yet have eyes that can see all the glory God has created. But maybe someday we will have such eyes. That will be the most wonderful fairy tale of all, for we ourselves will be part of it.

A human life is a story told by God.

When the bird of the heart begins to sing, too often will reason stop up her ears.

I never dreamed of so much happiness when I was the Ugly Duckling!

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.

Far out in the ocean, where the water is as blue as the prettiest cornflower, and as clear as crystal, it is very, very deep; so deep, indeed, that no cable could fathom it: many church steeples, piled one upon another, would not reach from the ground beneath to the surface of the water above. There dwell the Sea King and his subjects.

Farewell, farewell," said the swallow, with a heavy heart, as he left the warm countries, to fly back into Denmark. There he had a nest over the window of a house in which dwelt the writer of fairy tales. The swallow sang "Tweet, tweet," and from his song came the whole story.

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.

She laughed and danced with the thought of death in her heart.

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.

Happy domestic life is like a beautiful summer's evening; the heart is filled with peace; and everything around derives a peculiar glory.

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!

Most of the people who will walk after me will be children, so make the beat keep time with short steps.

My life is a lovely story, happy and full of incident.

To travel is to live.

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.

I only appear to be dead.

There was once a bundle of matches, and they were frightfully proud because of their high origin. Their family tree, that is to say the great pine tree of which they were each a little splinter, had been the giant of the forest.

I have gone through the most terrible affair that could possibly happen; only imagine, my shadow has gone mad; I suppose such a poor, shallow brain, could not bear much; he fancies that he has become a real man, and that I am his shadow.

Don't ask me how I am! I understand nothing more!

Each time I think that the song is ended ... something higher and better begins for me.

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.

Eighty percent of our criminals come from unsympathetic homes.

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.

Death walks faster than the wind and never returns what he has taken.

Well, it's not so easy to give an answer when you ask a stupid question!

How little do the wisest among us know of that which is so important to us all.