Hans Christian Andersen Quotes

“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!”

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

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

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

“I only appear to be dead.”

“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.”

“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.”

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

“Life itself is the most wonderful fairy tale.”

“Living is not enough. You must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower.”

“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.”

“The whole world is a series of miracles, but we're so used to them we call them ordinary things.”

“They sat close to each other, and he told her a story about her eyes. They were beautiful dark lakes in which her thoughts swam about like mermaids. And her forehead was a snowy mountain, grand and shining. These were lovely stories.”

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

“Travelling expands the mind rarely.”

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

“Where words fail, music speaks.”

“You are a dreamer, and that is your misfortune.”

“You have become my thinking’s single thought, My heart’s first love: it had no love before. I love you as no love on earth is wrought, I love you now and love you evermore.”

“But shouldn't all of us on earth give the best we have to others and offer whatever is in our power?”

“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.”

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

“The good and the beautiful is not forgotten; it lives in legend and in song.”

“There was a proud Teapot, proud of being made of porcelain, proud of its long spout and its broad handle. It had something in front of it and behind it; the spout was in front, and the handle behind, and that was what it talked about. But it didn't mention its lid, for it was cracked and it was riveted and full of defects, and we don't talk about our defects – other people do that.

The cups, the cream pitcher, the sugar bowl – in fact, the whole tea service – thought much more about the defects in the lid and talked more about it than about the sound handle and the distinguished spout. The Teapot knew this.”

“My life will be the best illustration of all my work.”

“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.”

“To travel is to live.”

“A mermaid has no tears, and therefore she suffers so much more.”

“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.”