Fridtjof Nansen > Quotes

“I demolish my bridges behind me...then there is no choice but to move forward”
― Fridtjof Nansen

“The difficult is what takes a little time. The impossible is what takes a little longer.”
― Fridtjof Nansen

“It is better to go skiing and think of God, than go to church and think of sport.”
― Fridtjof Nansen

“The first great thing is to find yourself and for that you need solitude and contemplation - at least sometimes. I can tell you deliverance will not come from the rushing noisy centers of civilization. It will come from the lonely places.”
― Fridtjof Nansen

“Never stop because you are afraid - you are never so likely to be wrong.”
― Fridtjof Nansen

“The history of the human race is a continual struggle from darkness into light. It is, therefore, to no purpose to discuss the use of knowledge; man wants to know, and when he ceases to do so, is no longer a man.”
― Fridtjof Nansen

“Wednesday, November 8th, 1893

Here I sit in the still winter night on the drifting ice-floe, and see only stars above me. Far off I see the threads of life twisting themselves into the intricate web which stretches unbroken from life’s sweet morning dawn to the eternal death-stillness of ice. Thought follows thought—you pick the whole to pieces, and it seems so small—but high above all towers one form … Why did you take this voyage? … Could I do otherwise? Can the river arrest its course and run up hill? My plan has come to nothing. That palace of theory which I reared, in pride and self-confidence, high above all silly objections has fallen like a house of cards at the first breath of wind. Build up the most ingenious theories and you may be sure of one thing—that fact will defy them all. Was I so very sure? Yes, at times; but that was self-deception, intoxication. A secret doubt lurked behind all the reasoning. It seemed as though the longer I defended my theory, the nearer I came to doubting it. But no, there is not getting over the evidence of that Siberian drift-wood. But if, after all, we are on the wrong track, what then? Only disappointed human hopes, nothing more. And even if we perish, what will it matter in the endless cycles of eternity?”
― Fridtjof Nansen, Farthest North: The Incredible Three-Year Voyage to the Frozen Latitudes of the North

“Love is life's snow. It falls deepest and softest into the gashes left by the fight - whiter and purer than snow itself.”
― Fridtjof Nansen, Farthest North

“Alas! Alas! Life is full of disappointments; as one reaches one ridge there is always another and a higher one beyond which blocks the view.”
― Fridtjof Nansen

“The starry sky is the truest friend in life, when you first become acquainted; it is ever there, it gives ever peace, ever reminds you that your restlessness, your doubt, your pains are passing trivialities. The universe is and will remain unshaken. Our opinions, our struggles, or sufferings are not so important and unique, when all is said and done.”
― Fridtjof Nansen

“beneath this crust, hundreds of fathoms down, there teems a world of checkered life in all its changing forms, a world of the same composition as ours, with the same instincts, the same sorrows, and also, no doubt, the same joys; everywhere the same struggle for existence. So it ever is. If we penetrate within even the hardest shell we come upon the pulsations of life, however thick the crust may be.”
― Fridtjof Nansen, Farthest North Being the Record of a Voyage of Exploration of the Ship 'Fram' 1893-1896 Vol. I

“Hope is a rickety craft to trust one’s self to. I”
― Fridtjof Nansen, Farthest North Being the Record of a Voyage of Exploration of the Ship 'Fram' 1893-1896 Vol. I

“The whole plan of extermination was nothing less than a cold blooded, calculated political measure, having for its object the annihilation of a superior element in the population, which might prove troublesome, and to this must be added the motive of greed.”
― Fridtjof Nansen

“Nothing more wonderfully beautiful can exist than the Arctic night. It is dreamland. painted in the imagination's most delicate tints; it is color etherealized. One shade melts into the other, so that you cannot tell where one ends and the other begins, and yet they are all there. No forms - it is all faint, dreamy color music, a far-away, long-drawn-out melody on muted strings. Is not all life's beauty high, and delicate, and pure like this night? Give it brighter colors, and it is no longer so beautiful.”
― Fridtjof Nansen, Farthest North: The Incredible Three-Year Voyage to the Frozen Latitudes of the North

“Most people are satisfied too soon, and that is the reason why there is so little wisdom in the world.”
― Fridtjof Nansen, Across the Polar Region. A lecture by Dr. F. Nansen describing his voyage in the Fram during the years 1893-96. - Scholar's Choice Edition

“The difficult is what takes a little time, the impossible is what takes a little longer.”
― Fridtjof Nansen

“Later in the day 'Gulen' gave in; it seemed to be a case of complete exhaustion, he could hardly stand on his legs, reeled over, and when we placed him on one of the loads he lay quite still without moving. We had already decided to kill him that day. Poor beast; faithfully he worked for us, good-tempered and willing to the end, and then, for thanks, when he could do no more, to be killed for provender! He was born on the Fram on December 13, 1893, and, true child of the polar night, never saw aught but ice and snow.”
― Fridtjof Nansen, Farthest North: The Incredible Three-Year Voyage to the Frozen Latitudes of the North

“The full-grown animals started up at the first report and looked round, and at the second shot the whole herd began to go into the water. The mothers, however, would not leave their dead young ones. One sniffed at its young one, and pushed it, evidently unable to make out what was the matter; it only saw the blood spurting from its head. It cried and wailed like a human being. At last, when the herd began to plunge in, the mother pushed her young one before her towards the water. I now feared that I should lose my booty, and ran forward to save it; but she was too quick for me. She took the young one by one fore-leg, and disappeared with it like lightning into the depths. The other mother did the same...I then went towards another herd, where there were also young ones, and shot one of them; but, made wiser by experience, I shot the mother too. It was a touching sight to see her bend over her dead young one before she was shot, and even in death she lay holding it with one fore-leg. So now we had meat and blubber enough to last a long time, and meat, too, that was delicious, for the side of young walrus tastes like loin of mutton.”
― Fridtjof Nansen

“The cub, poor thing, was a fine little fellow, with almost perfectly white fur and a dark muzzle; it was about the size of one of our smallest dogs. When they came up, he sat down on his mother's body, remained there quite still, and seeming for the present to take matters calmly. Henriksen put a strap round his neck, and when the mother was conveyed to the channel he followed quite willingly. But when, on arriving at the ship, he found he was to be separated from his mother and brought on board, it was quite another story. He resisted with all his strength, and was in a perfect rage. He got worse when he was let loose under the companion-hood on board. He carried on like a frenzied being, biting, tearing, growling, and howling with wild rage, like a veritable fiend, ceasing only as long as he was occupied in devouring the pieces of meat thrown to him. Never have I seen in any one creature such a combination of all the most savage qualities of wild beasts as I found in this little monster. And he was still quite a cub! In the evening, I gave orders to rid us of this unpleasant passenger, and Mogstad ended his days with a well-aimed blow of the hatchet.”
― Fridtjof Nansen, Farthest North: The Incredible Three-Year Voyage to the Frozen Latitudes of the North

“In spite of its huge body and shapeless appearance, which called up to the imagination bogy, giant, and kraken, and other evil things, there was something so gently supplicating and helpless in its round eyes as it lay there that its goblin exterior and one's own need were forgotten in pity for it. It almost seemed like murder. I put an end to its sufferings by a bullet behind the ear, but those eyes haunt me yet; it seemed as if in them lay the prayer for existence of the whole helpless walrus race.”
― Fridtjof Nansen, Farthest North: The Incredible Three-Year Voyage to the Frozen Latitudes of the North

“Du kan tenke dig seks bitte små mygg marsjerende over et forferdelig stort laken.”
― Fridtjof Nansen

“It was sad to think we could not take our two last dogs with us, but we should probably have no further use for them, and it would not have done to take them with us on the decks of our kayaks. We were sorry to part with them; we had become very fond of these two survivors. Faithful and enduring, they had followed us the whole journey through; and, now that better times had come, they must say farewell to life. Destroy them in the same way as the others we could not; we sacrificed a cartridge on each of them. I shot Johansen's, and he shot mine.”
― Fridtjof Nansen, Farthest North: The Incredible Three-Year Voyage to the Frozen Latitudes of the North

“Cerul înstelat este ce cel mai sincer prieten din viaţă; este mereu acolo, îţi dă întotdeauna pace, îţi aminteşte mereu că neliniştea ta, îndoiala ta, durerile tale sunt nimicuri trecătoare. Universul este şi va rămâne de neclintit. Când tragem linie, opiniile noastre, luptele noastre, suferinţele noastre nu sunt aşa de importante şi de unice.”
― Fridtjof Nansen

“I have weighed all the dogs and have come to the conclusion that we can feed them on each other and keep going for about fifty days, having, in addition to this, dog provisions for about thirty days, we ought to be able to travel with dogs for eighty days, and in that time it seems to me we should have arrived somewhere.”
― Fridtjof Nansen, Farthest North: The Incredible Three-Year Voyage to the Frozen Latitudes of the North

“Hvad enten man i mange punkter deler mit syn eller ikke, om jeg end ikke finder alt bestaaende saare godt, og selv om jeg skulde vise den svaghed at føle sorg over et synkende folk, som kanske ikke staar til at redde, da det allerede er stukket af vor civilisations giftige braad, saa trøster jeg mig med, at det ikke kan forværre dette folks kaar, og haaber, man vil opfatte mine bemerkninger i samme aand, som de er skrevne.”
― Fridtjof Nansen, Eskimoliv