Hans Christian Andersen

“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.”

“They could see she was a real Princess and no question about it, now that she had felt one pea all the way through twenty mattresses and twenty more feather beds. Nobody but a Princess could be so delicate.”

“His own image; no longer a dark, gray bird, ugly and disagreeable to look at, but a graceful and beautiful swan. 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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Every man’s life is a fairytale written by God’s hand.”

“Só se um ser humano a amasse tanto que você importasse mais para ele que pai e mãe. Se ele a amasse de todo o coração e deixasse o padre pôr a mão direita sobre a sua como uma promessa de ser fiel e verdadeiro por toda a eternidade. Nesse caso, a alma dele deslizaria para dentro do seu corpo e você, também, obteria uma parcela da felicidade humana. Ele lhe daria uma alma e, no entanto, conservaria a dele próprio.”

“He looked at the little maiden, and she looked at him; and he felt that he was melting away, but he still managed to keep himself erect, shouldering his gun bravely. A door was suddenly opened, the draught caught the little dancer and she fluttered like a sylph, straight into the fire, to the soldier, blazed up and was gone! By this time the soldier was reduced to a mere lump, and when the maid took away the ashes next morning she found him, in the shape of a small tin heart. All that was left of the dancer was her spangle, and that was burnt as black as a coal.”

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

“It doesn't matter if you're born in a duck yard, so long as you are hatched from a swan's egg!”

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

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

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

“Donc, il faudra que je meure et flotte comme écume sur la mer et n'entende jamais plus la musique des vagues, ne voit plus les fleurs ravissantes et le rouge soleil. Ne puis-je rien faire pour gagner une vie éternelle?”

“Where are your sons?" asked the prince."Well, it's not so easy to give an answer when you ask a stupid question!" said the woman.”

“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.”

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

“ele pediu-me para rezar, mas eu só me lembrava da tabuada”

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

“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.”

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

“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!”

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

“‎"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.”

“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.”

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

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

“I can give her no greater power than she has already, said the woman; don't you see how strong that is? How men and animals are obliged to serve her, and how well she has got through the world, barefooted as she is. She cannot receive any power from me greater than she now has, which consists in her own purity and innocence of heart. If she cannot herself obtain access to the Snow Queen, and remove the glass fragments from little Kay, we can do nothing to help her.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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”

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

“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.”

“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. ”

“To travel is to live.”

“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.”

“Brave soldier, never fear.Even though your death is near.”

“Where words fail, music speaks.”

“Travelling expands the mind rarely.”

“Life itself is the most wonderful fairy tale.”

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

“I only appear to be dead.”

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