Halldór Laxness Short Quotes

25 Sourced Quotes

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Hope springs eternal in the human breast.

Halldór Laxness
Anyone who doesn't know others doesn't know himself.

Halldór Laxness
Isn't it funny how everyone manages to die except me?

Halldór Laxness
To explain God would be to have no God, my little one.

Halldór Laxness
In the afterlife, people never forget to feed the dog.

Halldór Laxness
The first thing is to have the will; the rest is technique.

Halldór Laxness
Over us human beings there hangs an awful sword of justice.

Halldór Laxness
A man's conscience is an unsteady judge of right and wrong.

Halldór Laxness
It's both ludicrous and embarrassing to recall one's youth.

Halldór Laxness
Whoever doesn't live in poetry cannot survive here on earth.

Halldór Laxness
The truth displayed in a good life is the fairest of images.

Halldór Laxness
They thought I was an Icelander! But I'm no Icelander, s'help me!

Halldór Laxness
A man is not independent unless he has the courage to stand alone.

Halldór Laxness
Dear darling Americans, Jesus let them come with the atom bomb quick.

Halldór Laxness
No one is so busy that he hasn't the time to dismantle a work of art.

Halldór Laxness
When's there ever been a decent saint who didn't start out as a thief?

Halldór Laxness
You have fettered yourself of your own free will, man—break the fetters!

Halldór Laxness
It's a common saying that the children of children are fortune's favorites.

Halldór Laxness
My mother once sent me out to buy pepper, and I have not returned home yet.

Halldór Laxness
The Icelanders never got anything in exchange from the Danes except hunger.

Halldór Laxness
It's an old saying that one still has to know something, despite everything.

Halldór Laxness
Icelanders! You are the descendants of Nordic vikings! Down with Irish slaves!

Halldór Laxness
It's a pity we don't whistle at one another, like birds. Words are misleading.

Halldór Laxness
"Oh, well, I'm leaving here now," he told her. "They're forcing me to sell up."

Halldór Laxness
Gold is precious because it resembles the sun. Silver has the light of the moon.

Halldór Laxness
It's an honor to be beheaded. Even a little churl becomes a man by being beheaded.

Halldór Laxness
Dust, who is not dust? I am dust. But I am your Member of Parliament, nevertheless.

Halldór Laxness
Work on the one side, the home on the other—they were two walls in the one prison.

Halldór Laxness
It's you who are strange. Talking to you is like talking to someone who has no shadow.

Halldór Laxness
You can take everything from me except the freedom to look up at the sky occasionally.

Halldór Laxness