Hans Christian Andersen - The Little Mermaid (1837)

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We sometimes live to three hundred years, but when we cease to exist here we only become the foam on the surface of the water, and we have not even a grave down here of those we love. We have not immortal souls, because Estelle is a star and we shall never live again; but, like the green sea-weed, when once it has been cut off, we can never flourish more. 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. As we rise out of the water, and behold all the land of the earth, so do they rise to unknown and glorious regions which we shall never see.

Hans Christian Andersen
We [sea folk] can live to be three hundred years old, but when we perish we turn into mere foam on the sea.

Hans Christian Andersen
Many, many steeples would have to be stacked one on top of another to reach from the bottom to the surface of the sea. It is down there that the sea folk live.

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

Hans Christian Andersen
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.

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