Hans Christian Andersen
Far away, where the swallows take refuge in winter, lived a king who had eleven sons and one daughter, Elise. The eleven brothers--they were all princes--used to go to school with stars on their breasts and swords at their sides. They wrote upon golden slates with diamond pencils, and could read just as well without a book as with one, so there was no mistake about their being princes. Their sister Elise sat upon a little footstool of looking-glass, and she has a picture-book which had cost the half of a kingdom. Oh, these children were very happy; but it was not to last thus forever.Collection: Daughter
One cannot quite trust the word of potted flowers," thought the butterfly; "they have too much to do with men.Collection: Flower
When the bird of the heart begins to sing, too often will reason stop up her ears.Collection: Heart
How little do the wisest among us know of that which is so important to us all.Collection: Important
A human life is a story told by God.Collection: Sympathy
My life will be the best illustration of all my work.Collection: Illustration
Some are created for beauty, and some for use; and there are some which one can do without altogether.Collection: Use
It is the power of thought that gives man power over nature.Collection: Positive Thinking
Death walks faster than the wind and never returns what he has taken.Collection: Taken
But a mermaid has no tears, and therefore she suffers so much more.Collection: Mermaid
Well, it's not so easy to give an answer when you ask a stupid question!Collection: Stupid
If you looked down to the bottom of my soul, you would understand fully the source of my longing and – pity me. Even the open, transparent lake has its unknown depths, which no divers know.Collection: Lakes
She laughed and danced with the thought of death in her heart.Collection: Heart
Don't ask me how I am! I understand nothing more!Collection: Ask Me
Then she saw a star fall, leaving behind it a bright streak of fire. “Someone is dying,” thought the little girl, for her old grandmother, the only one who had ever loved her, and who was now dead, had told her that when a star falls, a soul was going up to God.Collection: Girl
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.Collection: Winning
Every time a good child dies, an angel of God comes down to earth. He takes the child in his arms, spreads out his great white wings, and flies with it all over the places the child loved on earth. The angel plucks a large handful of flowers, and they carry it with them up to God, where the flowers bloom more brightly than they ever did on earth.Collection: Children
Farewell, farewell," said the swallow, with a heavy heart, as he left the warm countries, to fly back into Denmark. There he had a nest over the window of a house in which dwelt the writer of fairy tales. The swallow sang "Tweet, tweet," and from his song came the whole story.Collection: Country
Eighty percent of our criminals come from unsympathetic homes.Collection: Home
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.Collection: Spiritual
Mermaids have no tears, and so they suffer all the more.Collection: Mermaid
I covet honour in the same way as a miser covets gold.Collection: Gold
Then he rustled his feathers, curved his slender neck, and cried joyfully, from the depths of his heart, 'I never dreamed of such happiness as this, while I was an ugly duckling.Collection: Happiness
He looked at the little maiden, and she looked at him; and he felt that he was melting away, but he still managed to keep himself erect, shouldering his gun bravely. A door was suddenly opened, the draught caught the little dancer and she fluttered like a sylph, straight into the fire, to the soldier, blazed up and was gone! By this time the soldier was reduced to a mere lump, and when the maid took away the ashes next morning she found him, in the shape of a small tin heart. All that was left of the dancer was her spangle, and that was burnt as black as a coal.Collection: Morning
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.Collection: Father
And the Top spoke no more of his old love; for that dies away when the beloved objects has lain for five years in a roof gutter and got wet through; yes, one does not know her again when one meets her in the dust box.Collection: Dust
To travel is to live.Collection: Adventure