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Hans Christian Andersen Quotes

Hans Christian Andersen , often referred to in Scandinavia as H. C. Andersen , was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, Andersen is best remembered for his fairy tales. Andersen's popularity is not limited to children: his stories express themes that transcend age and nationality.

Andersen's fairy tales, of which no less than 3381 works have been translated into more than 125 languages, have become culturally embedded in the West's collective consciousness, readily accessible to children, but presenting lessons of virtue and resilience in the face of adversity for mature readers as well. Some of his most famous fairy tales include "The Emperor's New Clothes", "The Little Mermaid", "The Nightingale", "The Snow Queen", "The Ugly Duckling", "Thumbelina", and many others. His stories have inspired ballets, plays, and animated and live-action films. One of Copenhagen's widest and most busy boulevards is labeled "H.C. Andersens Boulevard".

✵ 2. April 1805 – 4. August 1875  •  Other names Ганс Христиан Андерсен
Hans Christian Andersen photo

Works

The Little Mermaid
Hans Christian Andersen
The Ugly Duckling
Hans Christian Andersen
The Steadfast Tin Soldier
The Steadfast Tin Soldier
Hans Christian Andersen
The Little Mermaid
Hans Christian Andersen
The Ugly Duckling
Hans Christian Andersen
The Steadfast Tin Soldier
The Steadfast Tin Soldier
Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen: 41 quotes30 likes

Famous Hans Christian Andersen Quotes

“Where words fail, music speaks.”

Hans Christian Andersen

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

Hans Christian Andersen book The Little Mermaid

Source: The Little Mermaid

“Just living is not enough," said the butterfly, "one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.”

Hans Christian Andersen

Source: The Complete Fairy Tales

“To travel is to live.”

Hans Christian Andersen

The Fairy Tale of My Life
Fairy Tales (1835)
Source: The Fairy Tale of My Life: An Autobiography

“Life itself is the most wonderful fairy tale.”

Hans Christian Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen Quotes about life

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

Hans Christian Andersen

“My life will be the best illustration of all my work.”

Hans Christian Andersen

Source: The Fairy Tale of My Life: An Autobiography

“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."”

Hans Christian Andersen book The Nightingale

The Nightingale
Fairy Tales (1835)

Hans Christian Andersen Quotes about beauty

“Under each arm he carries an umbrella; one of them, with pictures on the inside, he spreads over the good children, and then they dream the most beautiful stories the whole night. But the other umbrella has no pictures, and this he holds over the naughty children so that they sleep heavily, and wake in the morning without having dreamed at all.”

Hans Christian Andersen

Ole-Lukøie
Fairy Tales (1835)

“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.”

Hans Christian Andersen The Ugly Duckling

Fairy Tales (1835)
Source: The Ugly Duckling

“‎"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.”

Hans Christian Andersen

Source: The Complete Fairy Tales

“She again rubbed a match on the wall, and the light shone round her; in the brightness stood her old grandmother, clear and shining, yet mild and loving in her appearance. "Grandmother," cried the little one, "O take me with you; I know you will go away when the match burns out; you will vanish like the warm stove, the roast goose, and the large, glorious Christmas-tree." And she made haste to light the whole bundle of matches, for she wished to keep her grandmother there. And the matches glowed with a light that was brighter than the noon-day, and her grandmother had never appeared so large or so beautiful. She took the little girl in her arms, and they both flew upwards in brightness and joy far above the earth, where there was neither cold nor hunger nor pain, for they were with God.”

Hans Christian Andersen book The Little Match Girl

The Little Match Girl
Fairy Tales (1835)

“When he saw Tiny, he was delighted, and thought her the prettiest little maiden he had ever seen. He took the gold crown from his head, and placed it on hers, and asked her name, and if she would be his wife, and queen over all the flowers. This certainly was a very different sort of husband to the son of a toad, or the mole, with my black velvet and fur; so she said, "Yes," to the handsome prince. Then all the flowers opened, and out of each came a little lady or a tiny lord, all so pretty it was quite a pleasure to look at them. Each of them brought Tiny a present; but the best gift was a pair of beautiful wings, which had belonged to a large white fly and they fastened them to Tiny's shoulders, so that she might fly from flower to flower.”

Hans Christian Andersen Thumbelina

Thumbelina
Fairy Tales (1835)

Hans Christian Andersen Quotes

“You are a dreamer, and that is your misfortune.”

Hans Christian Andersen

“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.”

Hans Christian Andersen

“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.”

Hans Christian Andersen book The Little Mermaid

Source: The Little Mermaid

“Never had she danced so beautifully; the sharp knives cut her feet, but she did not feel it, for the pain in her heart was far greater.”

Hans Christian Andersen book The Little Mermaid

Source: The Little Mermaid

“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.”

Hans Christian Andersen

Source: The Fairy Tale of My Life: An Autobiography

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

Hans Christian Andersen book The Story of a Mother

Fairy Tales (1835)
Source: The Story of a Mother

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

Hans Christian Andersen The Ugly Duckling

Source: The Ugly Duckling

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

Hans Christian Andersen

Source: Fairy Tales

“I only appear to be dead.”

Hans Christian Andersen

“They could see she was a real Princess and no question about it, now that she had felt one pea all the way through twenty mattresses and twenty more feather beds. Nobody but a Princess could be so delicate.”

Hans Christian Andersen book The Princess and the Pea

The Princess and the Pea
Fairy Tales (1835)
Source: The Princess and the Pea: The Graphic Novel

“Travelling expands the mind rarely.”

Hans Christian Andersen

“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.”

Hans Christian Andersen book The Little Mermaid

Source: The Little Mermaid

“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.”

Hans Christian Andersen book The Little Mermaid

The Little Mermaid
Fairy Tales (1835)

“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, because Estelle is a star and 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.”

Hans Christian Andersen book The Little Mermaid

The Little Mermaid
Fairy Tales (1835)

“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.”

Hans Christian Andersen book The Snow Queen

The Snow Queen, Sixth Story
Fairy Tales (1835)

“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.”

Hans Christian Andersen book The Angel

The Angel
Fairy Tales (1835)

“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.”

Hans Christian Andersen The Steadfast Tin Soldier

The Steadfast Tin Soldier
Fairy Tales (1835)

“"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.”

Hans Christian Andersen The Emperor's New Clothes

The Emperor's New Clothes
Fairy Tales (1835)

“"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."”

Hans Christian Andersen book The Shadow

The Shadow
Fairy Tales (1835)

“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!”

Hans Christian Andersen book The Swineherd

The Swineherd
Fairy Tales (1835)

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