Quotes by Danish Authors

It happened that a fire broke out backstage in a theater. The clown came out to inform the public. They thought it was a jest and applauded. He repeated his warning. They shouted even louder. So I think the world will come to an end amid the general applause from all the wits who believe that it is a joke.
Søren Kierkegaard
Paris shook his head."Do you think I would teach just anyone to fight me to the death? I want you to be my wife. My one and only wife.
Anne Fortier
But are you not fond of me?" Paris looked up, his eyes full of reproach."Fond of you? Myrina you are my queen. I want you more than I want life itself.
Anne Fortier
Why must a woman always surrender? I am not prey!""No I am. Your arrow struck me long ago." Paris took her hand and placed it on his chest."Right here. And every time I try to pull it out." He used her hand to demonstrate. "You force it back in.
Anne Fortier
Fear not! I would rather tear the heart from your bosom than take your bow, for I believe you would miss it less.
Anne Fortier
Yes you may come." Paris held up a hand to delay Myrina's raptures. "But this time you will not be wearing my crown. You will be my slave, and believe me I shall enjoy ordering you around.
Anne Fortier
Through play, children experience a greater confidence in their bodies, surroundings and themselves. They become familiar with what they can and cannot do.
Iben Dissing Sandahl
When I was young, I forgot how to laugh in the cave of Trophonius; when I was older, I opened my eyes and beheld reality, at which I began to laugh, and since then, I have not stopped laughing. I saw that the meaning of life was to secure a livelihood, and that its goal was to attain a high position; that love’s rich dream was marriage with an heiress; that friendship’s blessing was help in financial difficulties; that wisdom was what the majority assumed it to be; that enthusiasm consisted in making a speech; that it was courage to risk the loss of ten dollars; that kindness consisted in saying, “You are welcome,” at the dinner table; that piety consisted in going to communion once a year. This I saw, and I laughed.
Søren Kierkegaard
Something wonderful has happened to me. I was carried up into the seventh heaven. There all the gods sat assembled. By special grace I was granted the favor of a wish. "Will you," said Mercury, "have youth, or beauty, or power, or a long life, or the most beautiful maiden, or any of the other glories we have in the chest? Choose, but only one thing." For a moment I was at a loss. Then I addressed myself to the gods as follows: "Most honorable contemporaries, I choose this one thing, that I may always have the laugh on my side." Not one of the gods said a word, on the contrary, they all began to laugh. Hence, I concluded that my request was granted, and found that the gods knew how to express themselves with great taste; for it would hardly have been suitable for them to answer gravely: "It is granted thee".
Søren Kierkegaard
I think these difficult times have helped me to understand better than before how infinitely rich and beautiful life is in every way and that so many things that one goes around worrying about are of no importance whatsoever.
Isak Dinesen
The road to wisdom? Well it's plain And simple to express: Err And err And err again But less And less And less.
Piet Hein
When you have a great and difficult task something perhaps almost impossible if you only work a little at a time every day a little suddenly the work will finish itself.
Isak Dinesen
Look at a stone cutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred-and-first blow it will split in two and I know it was not the last blow that did it but all that had gone before.
Jacob A. Riis
Life can only be understood backwards but it must be lived forward.
Søren Kierkegaard
God made the world round so we would never be able to see too far down the road.
Isak Dinesen
If no thought your mind does visit make your speech not too explicit.
Piet Hein
After pleasant scratching comes unpleasant smarting.
Danish proverb
Of all the idiots I have met in my life and the Lord knows that they have not been few or little I think that I have been the biggest.
Isak Dinesen
In the mind and nature of a man a secret is an ugly thing like a hidden physical defect.
Isak Dinesen
Without risk faith is an impossibility.
Søren Kierkegaard
Most people believe that the Christian commandments are intentionally a little too severe - like setting a clock half an hour ahead to make sure of not being late in the morning.
Søren Kierkegaard
If I were to wish for anything I should not wish for wealth and power but for the passionate sense of the potential for the eye which ever young and ardent sees the possible ... what wine is so sparkling so fragrant so intoxicating as possibility!
Søren Kierkegaard
Flint must be an extremely wealthy town I see that each of you bought two or three seats.
Victor Borge
Teach me O God not to torture myself not to make a martyr out of myself through stifling reflection but rather teach me to breathe deeply in faith.
Søren Kierkegaard
To stand on one leg and prove God's existence is a very different thing from going down on one's knees and thanking him.
Søren Kierkegaard
Prayer does not change God but it changes him who prays.
Søren Kierkegaard
The tyrant dies and his rule is over the martyr dies and his rule begins.
Søren Kierkegaard
Men have a trick of coming up to what is expected of them good or bad.
Jacob A. Riis
The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.
Niels Bohr
What our age lacks is not reflection but passion.
Søren Kierkegaard
If envy were a fever all the world would be ill.
Danish proverb
When nothing seems to help I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two and I know it was not that blow that did it but all that had gone before.
Jacob A. Riis
Most people believe that the Christian commandments are intentionally a little too severe - like setting a clock half an hour ahead to make sure of not being late in the morning.
Søren Kierkegaard
If I were to wish for anything I should not wish for wealth and power but for the passionate sense of the potential for the eye which ever young and ardent sees the possible ... what wine is so sparkling so fragrant so intoxicating as possibility!
Søren Kierkegaard
Flint must be an extremely wealthy town I see that each of you bought two or three seats.
Victor Borge
Teach me O God not to torture myself not to make a martyr out of myself through stifling reflection but rather teach me to breathe deeply in faith.
Søren Kierkegaard
To stand on one leg and prove God's existence is a very different thing from going down on one's knees and thanking him.
Søren Kierkegaard
Prayer does not change God but it changes him who prays.
Søren Kierkegaard
The tyrant dies and his rule is over the martyr dies and his rule begins.
Søren Kierkegaard
Men have a trick of coming up to what is expected of them good or bad.
Jacob A. Riis
The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.
Niels Bohr
What our age lacks is not reflection but passion.
Søren Kierkegaard
If envy were a fever all the world would be ill.
Danish proverb
When nothing seems to help I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two and I know it was not that blow that did it but all that had gone before.
Jacob A. Riis
A deaf husband and a blind wife are always a happy couple.
Danish proverb
Every man's life is a fairy-tale written by God's fingers.
Hans Christian Andersen
Life can only be understood backwards but it must be lived forwards.
Søren Kierkegaard
People hardly ever make use of the freedom they have for example freedom of thought instead they demand freedom of speech as a compensation.
Søren Kierkegaard
Lawyers and painters can soon change white to black.
Danish proverb
The conclusions of passion are the only reliable ones.
Søren Kierkegaard
Every man is a hypocrite
Frederick IV
Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.
Victor Borge
Most men pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry past it.
Søren Kierkegaard
I don't think that... one gets a flash of happiness once and never again it is there within you and it will come as certainly as death.
Isak Dinesen
Bad is never good until worse happens.
Danish proverb
Adversity not only draws people together but brings forth that beautiful inward friendship.
Søren Kierkegaard
Without risk faith is an impossibility.
Søren Kierkegaard
The road to wisdom? Well it's plain and simple to express: Err and err and err again. But less and less and less.
Piet Hein
I have always had a dread of becoming a passenger in life.
Margareth II
After pleasant scratching comes unpleasant smarting.
Danish proverb