Hans Christian Andersen Quotes

61 Sourced Quotes

His own image... was no longer the reflection of a clumsy, dirty, gray bird, ugly and offensive. He himself was a swan! Being born in a duck yard does not matter, if only you are hatched from a swan's egg.

Hans Christian Andersen
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.

Hans Christian Andersen
I have shed pewter tears! It is too melancholy! Rather let me go to the wars and lose arms and legs! It would at least be a change. I cannot bear it longer! Now, I know what it is to have a visit from one's old thoughts, with what they may bring with them! I have had a visit from mine, and you may be sure it is no pleasant thing in the end; I was at last about to jump down from the drawers.

Hans Christian Andersen
The naive was only a part of my fairy tales; humor was the real salt in them.

Hans Christian Andersen
He now felt glad at having suffered sorrow and trouble, because it enabled him to enjoy so much better all the pleasure and happiness around him; for the great swans swam round the new-comer, and stroked his neck with their beaks, as a welcome.

Hans Christian Andersen
Brave soldier, never fear. Even though your death is near.

Hans Christian Andersen
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.

Hans Christian Andersen
Each soldier was the living image of the others, but there was one who was a bit different. He had only one leg, for he was the last to be cast and the tin had run out. Still, there he stood, just as steadfast on his one leg as the others on their two; and he is the tin soldier we are going to hear about.

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

Hans Christian Andersen
Under each arm he carries an umbrella; one of them, with pictures on the inside, he spreads over the good children, and then they dream the most beautiful stories the whole night. But the other umbrella has no pictures, and this he holds over the naughty children so that they sleep heavily, and wake in the morning without having dreamed at all.

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

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.

Hans Christian Andersen
Time is so fleeting that if we do not remember God in our youth, age may find us incapable of thinking of him.

Hans Christian Andersen
I would give gladly all the hundreds of years that I have to live, to be a human being only for one day, and to have the hope of knowing the happiness of that glorious world above the stars.

Hans Christian Andersen
There was once a merchant who was so rich that he might have paved the whole street, and a little alley besides, with silver money. But he didn't do it--he knew better how to use his money than that.

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

Hans Christian Andersen
"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." "How very terrible, cried the princess; "is he locked up?" "Oh yes, certainly; for I fear he will never recover." "Poor shadow!" said the princess; "it is very unfortunate for him; it would really be a good deed to free him from his frail existence; and, indeed, when I think how often people take the part of the lower class against the higher, in these days, it would be policy to put him out of the way quietly."

Hans Christian Andersen
Well, yes: people write poems when they are in love, but a wise man will not print them.

Hans Christian Andersen
One cannot quite trust the word of potted flowers," thought the butterfly; "they have too much to do with men.

Hans Christian Andersen
Some are created for beauty, and some for use; and there are some which one can do without altogether.

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

Hans Christian Andersen
What the botanist tells us after a number of imperfect lectures, the flower proclaimed in a minute.

Hans Christian Andersen
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.

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

Hans Christian Andersen
The wiser a man becomes, the more he will read, and those who are wisest read most.

Hans Christian Andersen
Every town, like every man, has its own countenance; they have a common likeness and yet are different; one keeps in his mind all their peculiar touches.

Hans Christian Andersen
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.

Hans Christian Andersen
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.

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

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

Hans Christian Andersen