Halldór Laxness citations

Page 8

“I felt that I was dying, and perhaps I did die a little, or rather began to die in the way that the cocoon of the chrysalis cracks at the end of winter; but unfortunately I did not die so thoroughly that I achieved new life like a butterfly.”

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Halldór Laxness

Brekkukotsannáll (The Fish Can Sing) (1957)

“October passed, and there was no change inside the cubicle; except that the woman only became paler and more lifeless. Until finally the time came when she became transparent; she underwent that transformation, that transguration of countenance that sometimes comes to sufferers when the last of their strength ebbs away.”

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Halldór Laxness

Brekkukotsannáll (The Fish Can Sing) (1957)

“Genuine gold does not exist, children, he said. Gold is by its nature not genuine.”

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Halldór Laxness

Brekkukotsannáll (The Fish Can Sing) (1957)

“I’m afraid I’m not very good at Latin, said the superintendent. On the other hand I sometimes think about arithmetic; and in particular about one number – the number One. But I will admit that it is also the most incomprehensible number in the world. Beyond this particular dimension I know only one thing which is supernatural, even though it may well be the reality that affects mortal men most deeply; and that is Time. And when one comes to think about this strange place I was telling you about, the world that is only One, and its connection with the only supernatural thing we know, Time, then everything ceases to be higher or lower than anything else, larger or smaller.”

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Halldór Laxness

Brekkukotsannáll (The Fish Can Sing) (1957)

“...life has taught me to make no distinction between a hero and a little man, between great events and small trifles. From my point of view, men and events are all more or less the same size.”

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Halldór Laxness

Brekkukotsannáll (The Fish Can Sing) (1957)

“Curiosity can be called a virtue or a vice, depending on what kind of elementary ethics one reads; in our house at Brekkukot, curiosity was considered on a par with thievishness.”

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Halldór Laxness

Brekkukotsannáll (The Fish Can Sing) (1957)