Quotes from Knut Hamsun

The ships whose masts I saw outlined against the sky looked, with their black hulls, like silent monsters that were raising their hackles and lying in wait for me.

Ovi listovi govore o mnogima, ali za mene samo o jednoj.

No he tenido la mujer que hubiera necesitado en la vida; pero no por esto carezco de alegrías. Sólo que las enturbio; siempre las enturbio.

Deliberately shorn of all that makes for mere effect, Isak stands out as an elemental figure, the symbol of Man at his best, face to face with Nature and life. There is no greater human character—reverently said—in the Bible itself.

La conciencia de mi honradez se me subió a la cabeza, tuve el sentimiento grandioso de que yo era un carácter, un faro completamente blanco en medio del mar cenagoso de los hombres, un mostrenco extraordinario.

Actually, I wouldn't attack Kant after all, I could avoid that, I would just have to make an invisible detour when I came to the problem of Space and Time [...]

ingen Penge mere og kan ikke arbejde, blaut, Far, udsuget, Fan danse mig.

Yoksul ayd?n, zengin ayd?ndan çok daha kuvvetli görür.(s.128)

Dios bendiga los tiempos antiguos, en que existían cosas raras...!

Young hearts have their unfathomable depths.

Huset har søkning av kaffedrikkere.

Out in the fjord I dragged myself up at once, wet with fever and exhaustion, and gazed landwards, and bade farewell for the present to the town – to Christiania, where the windows gleamed so brightly in all the homes.

Til andre Tider kan selv usædvanlige Oplevelser ikke formaa at rykke en ut av en jævn og fattig Stemning; midt i en Ballsal kan man sitte sikker, likegyldig og upaavirket. For det er ens eget Indre som er Sorgens eller Glædens Kilde.

Og intet Rop, intet Menneskes Ord hørtes noget Sted, ingenting, men bare det tunge Sus omkring mit Hode.

No, I don't admire the genius. But I admire and love the result of the genius's activity in the world, of which the great man is only the poor necessary tool, only, so to speak, the paltry awl to bore with.

God be praised, I had raised myself in my own estimation again!

Gud i himlen, kjærligheten er et flygtig stof!

What if one were up there, drifting about among suns and feeling the tails of comets fan one's forehead! How small the earth was and how puny the people; a Norway of two million provincial souls and a mortgage bank to help feed them! What was life worth at such a rate? You elbowed yourself ahead in the sweat of your face for a few mortal years, only to perish all the same, all the same!

Lykkelige mennesker! Det er også noget å være næsten intet.

That room was Rolandsen's world. Rolandsen was not just irresponsibility and inebriation, he was also great thinker and inventor. There was a smell of acids that permeated the corridor and came to the notice of every visitor. Rolandsen made no secret of the fact that he had all these medicaments there solely to disguise the aroma of all the brandy he consumed. But this was part of an act designed purely to give himself an air of inscrutability.

Markboen tapte ikke hodet. Han fandt ikke luften usund for sig, han hadde publikum nok til sine nye klær, han savnet ikke diamanter, vin kjendte han fra bryllupet i Kana. Markboen gjorde sig ikke ondt av de herligheter han ikke fik: kunst, aviser, luksus, politik var værd nøiagtig det som menneskene vilde betale for det, ikke mere; markens grøde derimot den måtte skaffes til hvilkensomhelst pris, den var altings ophav, den eneste kilde.

Fall has arrived and has already begun to put everything into a deep sleep; flies and other insects have suffered their first setback, and up in the trees and down on the ground you can hear the sounds of struggling life, puttering , ceaselessly rustling, laboring not to perish.

Og menneske skulde man ikke være; nei, men gjenstand, ting. Når en mand stanset mig på gaten og spurte om veien vilde jeg kunne svare: Det vet jeg ikke. Men spør en anden gaslykt.

La oscuridad había tomado posesión de mi pensamiento y no me dejaba reposar un instante. ¿Y si me hubiera disuelto en las tinieblas, si yo no fuera más que una parte de ellas?