Quotes from Hans Christian Andersen

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

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.

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

Where words fail, music speaks.

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

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.

We haven't yet got eyes that can gaze into all the splendour that God has created, but we shall get them one day; and that will be the finest fairy tale of all, for we shall be in it ourselves.

The sun shines upon good and bad alike.

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

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

My life is a lovely story, happy and full of incident.

A human life is a story told by God.

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

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

Life itself is the most wonderful fairy tale.

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

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.

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!

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;

Travelling expands the mind rarely.

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.

It was the last night that she would breathe the same air as he, or look out over the deep sea and up into the star-blue heaven. A dreamless, eternal night awaited her, for she had no soul and had not been able to win one.

And they both sat there, grown up, yet children at heart; and it was summer, - warm, beautiful summer.

When we get to the end of the story, you will know more than you do now...