Quotes from Sigrid Undset

Human beings could not have done this work on their own. God's spirit had been at work in holy Øistein and the men who built the church after him. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Now she understood those words. A reflection of the splendor of God's kingdom bore witness through the stones that His will was all that was beautiful.

He loved the holy mass and prayers spoken in Latin, and he regarded the church as the place where he felt the most joy.

she had learned that the world is like a tavern - where he who has naught more to spend from is cast out at the door.

They who have loved one another with the fieriest desire come in the end to be as two vipers biting each other's tails.

God only knows how much of a man there will be left of you when you take stock of yourself twenty years from now

twas somewhat about good days falling to wise folk, but the best days of all falling to those who dare to be unwise.

In her soul, sin continued to exist, like roots of a weed intertwined in the soil. It no longer blossomed or flared up or smelled fragrant, but it was still there in the soil.

It would be unmanly to complain against the faith I had chosen.

There is no worthier work for the man person who has been graced with the ability to see even a small part of God's Mercy than to serve him and to keep vigil for the people whose sight is still clouded by the shadow of worldly matters.

No, God had not forsaken her. In His mercy, He had heard her cries for help when she called on him as she sank more and more into her misery. - even when she called without believing she could be heard It felt as if the black sea were rushing over her; now the waves lifted her toward a bliss so strange and so sweet that she knew it would carry her out of life.

It's a sin to brood over and dwell on the sins we have confessed to the priest and repented before God, reviving his forgiveness through the hand and the words of the priest.

He had been so married to her that he had grown pius himself, because he had believed in her piety.

as she was when they first met: gentle and seemly, intelligent enough that a man would gladly seek her counsel even on important matters, a bit headstrong about petty things, but otherwise amenable, accustomed as she was to accepting from her father's hands guidance and support and protection.

Så tenkte jeg, og derfor sa jeg det. Men sørg ikke over dette; ti jeg selv har voldt at slik måtte det ende. Og Gud bedre det for deg, sønn, så du ikke arver vår lykke. Gjør nu som din mor vil; lenge har jeg lengtet etter at mitt hode skulle ligge i hennes fang.

One year, thought Kristin, and she could hardly remember when she had last given Arne a thought. It gave her a fright—maybe she was a loose, vile woman. A year since she had seen him lying on the bier in the death chamber, when she thought she would never be happy again. She whimpered silently in fear at the inconstancy of her own heart and at the transitory nature of all things. Erlend, Erlend—would he forget her? But worse yet was that she might ever forget him.

God help you... You want nothing more from all your prayers and fassting than to force your will on God. Does it surprise you, then, that it has accomplished so little good?

So now you know, Kristin, that I have compromised much, both my land and my honor. You would certainly be much better served if you stayed with Simon Andressøn." Kristin put her arms around his neck. "We will stand by what we swore to each other last night, Erlend—if you feel as I do.

Just as we are conceived and born from the lives of others, we must sustain our daily lives with what we receive from others. And we must pay for it by giving of ourselves every single day.

I wot well you are more more godly in such-like things that I can ever be—yet, Kristin, 'tis hard for me to see how it should be a right reading of God's word to go on, as your way is, ever storing up wrath and never forgetting.

Feelings of longing seemed to burst from her heart; they ran in all directions, like streams of blood, seeking out paths to all the places in the wide landscape where she had lived, to all her sons roaming through the world, to all her dead lying under the earth. She wondered: Had she turned cowardly? She had never felt this way before.

Now he began to divine that a deeper meaning and a deeper wisdom underlay Our Lord's commandment Thou shalt not kill than merely that which he had been told–God desires not the death of any sinner. Behind the commandment lay also a care for the slayer–the slayer also exposed his soul to many kinds of evil powers, which now found occasion for sudden assaults.

God grant,' he said, 'that he may learn to understand in time that whoso is minded to do as he himself wills will soon enough see the day when he will find he has done that which he had never willed.' 

At times it occurs to all of us that it is downright trivial for 2 and 2 to make 4…After all, we have all experienced at least a passing feeling, a longing for a far distant dreamland where 2 and 2 make whatever we wish them to make.

I get annoyed whenever people try to be sympathetic, and annoyed when they don't.