Almighty God, thee only have I; thou steepest 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!

— Hans Christian Andersen

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

— Hans Christian Andersen

But these are small troubles, people will say. Yes, but they are drops which wear hollows in the rock.

— Hans Christian Andersen

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

— Hans Christian Andersen

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

— Hans Christian Andersen

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

— Hans Christian Andersen

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

— Hans Christian Andersen

Grant not my prayers, when they are contrary to Thy will, which at all times must be the best. Oh, hear them not;

— Hans Christian Andersen

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 draft 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.

— Hans Christian Andersen

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 of a bird, if it is hatched from a swan's egg.

— Hans Christian Andersen