Great Throughts Treasury

"Every man's life is a fairy-tale written by God's fingers."

"Eighty per cent of our criminals come from unsympathetic homes."

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

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

"Where words fail, music speaks."

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

"Life itself is the most wonderful fairy tale. "

"A human life is a story told by God."

"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!"

"A mermaid has no tears, and therefore she suffers so much more."

"And the matches gave such a brilliant light that it was brighter than at noon-day: never formerly had the grandmother been so beautiful and so tall. She took the little maiden, on her arm, and both flew in brightness and in joy so high, so very high, and then above was neither cold, nor hunger, nor anxiety--they were with God."

"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."

"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."

"Being born in a duck yard does not matter, if only you are hatched from a swan's egg."

"But a mermaid has no tears, and therefore she suffers so much more."

"But he has nothing on at all, said a little child at last. Good heavens! listen to the voice of an innocent child, said the father, and one whispered to the other what the child had said. But he has nothing on at all, cried at last the whole people. That made a deep impression upon the emperor, for it seemed to him that they were right; but he thought to himself, Now I must bear up to the end. And the chamberlains walked with still greater dignity, as if they carried the train which did not exist."

"Brave soldier, never fear. Even though your death is near."

"But the Emperor has nothing on at all! said a little child."

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

"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."

"Death continued to stare at the emperor with his cold, hollow eyes, and the room was fearfully still. Suddenly there came through the open window the sound of sweet music. Outside, on the bough of a tree, sat the living nightingale. She had heard of the emperor's illness, and was therefore come to sing to him of hope and trust. And as she sung, the shadows grew paler and paler; the blood in the emperor's veins flowed more rapidly, and gave life to his weak limbs; and even Death himself listened, and said, "Go on, little nightingale, go on.""

"Death walks faster than the wind and never returns what he has taken."

"Each soldier was the living image of the others, but there was one who was a bit different. He had only one leg, for he was the last to be cast and the tin had run out. Still, there he stood, just as steadfast on his one leg as the others on their two; and he is the tin soldier we are going to hear about."

"?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."

"Everything you look at can become a fairy tale and you can get a story from everything you touch."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"He felt himself melting away, but he still remained firm with his gun on his shoulder. Suddenly the door of the room flew open and the draught of air caught up the little dancer, she fluttered like a sylph right into the stove by the side of the tin soldier, and was instantly in flames and was gone. The tin soldier melted down into a lump, and the next morning, when the maid servant took the ashes out of the stove, she found him in the shape of a little tin heart. But of the little dancer nothing remained but the tinsel rose, which was burnt black as a cinder."

"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."

"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."

"His own image; no longer a dark, gray bird, ugly and disagreeable to look at, but a graceful and beautiful swan. 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."

"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; for the great swans swam round the new-comer, and stroked his neck with their beaks, as a welcome."

"I can give her no greater power than she has already," said the woman; "don't you see how strong that is? How men and animals are obliged to serve her, and how well she has got through the world, barefooted as she is. She cannot receive any power from me greater than she now has, which consists in her own purity and innocence of heart. If she cannot herself obtain access to the Snow Queen, and remove the glass fragments from little Kay, we can do nothing to help her."

"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. How very terrible, cried the princess; is he locked up? Oh yes, certainly; for I fear he will never recover. Poor shadow! said the princess; it is very unfortunate for him; it would really be a good deed to free him from his frail existence; and, indeed, when I think how often people take the part of the lower class against the higher, in these days, it would be policy to put him out of the way quietly."

"I cannot bear it! said the pewter soldier. 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."

"I have now learnt to despise you, he said. You refused an honest prince; you did not appreciate the rose and the nightingale; but you did not mind kissing a swineherd for his toys; you have no one but yourself to blame!"

"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."

"I only appear to be dead."

"It's a kind of home for Hans Christian Andersen here in Moscow."

"It is the power of thought that gives man power over nature."

"Just living isn't enough, said the butterfly, one must also have freedom, sunshine, and a little flower."

"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."

"If human beings are not drowned, asked the little mermaid, can they live forever? do they never die as we do here in the sea? Yes, replied the old lady, they must also die, and their term of life is even shorter than ours. We sometimes live to three hundred years, but when we cease to exist here we only become the foam on the surface of the water, and we have not even a grave down here of those we love. We have not immortal souls, we shall never live again; but, like the green sea-weed, when once it has been cut off, we can never flourish more. 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. As we rise out of the water, and behold all the land of the earth, so do they rise to unknown and glorious regions which we shall never see. Why have not we an immortal soul? asked the little mermaid mournfully; 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. You must not think of that, said the old woman; we feel ourselves to be much happier and much better off than human beings. So I shall die, said the little mermaid, and as the foam of the sea I shall be driven about never again to hear the music of the waves, or to see the pretty flowers nor the red sun."

"It is God who lets the wild apples grow, to satisfy the hungry. He showed her a wild apple-tree, with the boughs bending under the weight of the fruit. Here she took her midday meal, placing props under the boughs, and then went into the darkest part of the forest. There it was so still that she could hear her own footsteps, as well as the rustling of every dry leaf which bent under her feet. Not one bird was to be seen, not one ray of sunlight could find its way through the great dark boughs of the trees; the lofty trunks stood so close together that when she looked before her it appeared as though she were surrounded by sets of palings one behind the other. O, here was solitude such as she had never before known!"

"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."

"It doesn't matter if you're born in a duck yard, so long as you are hatched from a swan's egg!"

"Joy prompts courage."

"Life is like a beautiful melody, only the lyrics are messed up."