Hans Christian Andersen
Every man's life is a fairy tale written by God's fingers.Collection: God
Just living is not enough... one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.Collection: Nature
Life itself is the most wonderful fairy tale.Collection: Life
Where words fail, music speaks.Collection: Music
Travelling expands the mind rarely.Collection: Travel
Being born in a duck yard does not matter, if only you are hatched from a swan's egg.
My life is a lovely story, happy and full of incident.
Most of the people who will walk after me will be children, so make the beat keep time with short steps.
The whole world is a series of miracles, but we're so used to them we call them ordinary things.Collection: Miracle
Everything you look at can become a fairy tale and you can get a story from everything you touch.Collection: Looks
To move, to breathe, to fly, to float, To gain all while you give, To roam the roads of lands remote, To travel is to live.Collection: Inspirational
Enjoy life. There's plenty of time to be dead.Collection: Life
The wiser a man becomes, the more he will read, and those who are wisest read most.Collection: Men
Nothing is too high for a man to reach, but he must climb with care and confidenceCollection: Men
To be of use to the world is the only way to be happy.Collection: Happiness
Life is like a beautiful melody, only the lyrics are messed up.Collection: Music
We cannot expect to be happy always ... by experiencing evil as well as good we become wise.Collection: Wise
But shouldn't all of us on earth give the best we have to others and offer whatever is in our power?Collection: Giving
The sun shines upon good and bad alike.Collection: Shining
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.Collection: Stars
"Does all the beauty of the world stop when you die?" "No," said the Old Oak; "it will last much longer - longer than I can even think of." "Well, then," said the little May-fly, "we have the same time to live; only we reckon differently.Collection: Thinking
Each time I think that the song is ended ... something higher and better begins for me.Collection: Song
Well, yes: people write poems when they are in love, but a wise man will not print them.Collection: Wise
Happy domestic life is like a beautiful summer's evening; the heart is filled with peace; and everything around derives a peculiar glory.Collection: Happiness
The naive was only a part of my fairy tales; humour was the real salt in them.Collection: Real
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.Collection: Providence
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.Collection: Eye
Time is so fleeting that if we do not remember God in our youth, age may find us incapable of thinking of him.Collection: Thinking
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.Collection: Stars
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.Collection: Wise
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!Collection: Heart
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.Collection: Tree
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.Collection: Real
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.Collection: Men
To be born in a duck's nest, in a farmyard, is of no consequence to a bird, if it is hatched from a swan's egg.Collection: Ducks
He found whole figures which represented a written word; but he never could manage to represent just the word he wanted - that word was 'eternity', and the Snow Queen had said, "If you can discover that figure, you shall be your own master, and I will make you a present of the whole world and a pair of new skates." But he could not find it out.Collection: Queens
Every step you take will feel as if you were treading upon knife blades so sharp that blood must flow. I am willing to help you, but are you willing to suffer all this?" "Yes," the little mermaid said in a trembling voice, as she thought of the Prince and of gaining a human soul.Collection: Blood
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.Collection: Stupid
But the Emperor has nothing at all on!Collection: Emperor
It is out of reality that the most peculiar tale of all is born ... Some call me the Elder Granny, others - the Dryad, but my real name is Memory. It is I who sits on a tree that keeps on growing, and growing, it is I who reminisces and tells stories.Collection: Memories
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.Collection: Use
In the middle of a garden grew a rose tree; it was full of roses, and in the loveliest of them all lived an elf. He was so tiny that no human eye could see him. He had a snug little room behind every petal of the rose. He was as well made and as perfect as any human child, and he had wings reaching from his shoulders to his feet. Oh, what a delicious scent there was in his room, and how lovely and transparent the walls were, for they were palest pink, rose petals.Collection: Children
Sharp knives seemed to cut her delicate feet, yet she hardly felt them, so deep was the pain in her heart. She could not forget that this was the last night she would ever see the one for whom she had left her home and family, had given up her beautiful voice, and had day by day endured unending torment, of which he knew nothing at all. An eternal night awaited her.Collection: Beautiful
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.Collection: Kings
Brave soldier, never fear. Even though your death is near.Collection: Brave
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.Collection: War
Now, if we only had as many casks of butter as there are people here, then I would eat lots of butter!Collection: People
I never dreamed of so much happiness when I was the Ugly Duckling!Collection: Ugly Duckling
She thought, "He whom I love more than my father or mother, he of whom I am always thinking, and in whose hands I would so willingly trust my lifelong happiness. I dare do anything to win him and to gain an immortal soul.Collection: Mother
Many, many steeples would have to be stacked one on top of another to reach from the bottom to the surface of the sea.Collection: Ocean