Selma Lagerlöf > Quotes

“Nothing on earth can make up for the loss of one who has loved you.”
― Selma Lagerlöf

“Have you ever seen a child sitting on its mother’s knee listening to fairy stories? As long as the child is told of cruel giants and of the terrible suffering of beautiful princesses, it holds its head up and its eyes open; but if the mother begins to speak of happiness and sunshine, the little one closes its eyes and falls asleep with its head against her breast. . . . I am a child like that, too. Others may like stories of flowers and sunshine; but I choose the dark nights and sad destinies.”
― Selma Lagerlöf, Gösta Berling's Saga

“What Gosta,' he said to himself, 'can you no longer endure? You have been hardened in poverty all of your life; you have heard every tree in the forest, every tuft in the meadows preach to you of sacrifice and patience. You, brought up in a country where the winter is severe, and the summer joy is very short, have you forgotten the art of bearing your trials?
'Oh Gosta, a man must bear all that life gives him with a courageous heart and a smile on his lips, else he is no man. Sorrow as much as you will. If you love your beloved, let your conscience burn and chafe within you, but show yourself a man and a Varmlander. Let your glances beam with joy, and meet your friends with a gay word on your lips! Life and nature are hard. They bring forth courage and joy as a counterweight against their own hardness, or no one could endure them...”
― Selma Lagerlöf

“Fjärilar skola veta att dö medan solen skiner.”
― Lagerlöf Selma, The Story of Gösta Berling

“Non c'è niente di più bello che starsene lì sdraiati con un bel libro avuto in regalo, un libro nuovo che non si è ancora mai visto e che nessun altro in casa conosce, e sapere che si può leggere pagina dopo pagina finché si riesce a stare svegli. Ma come si fa la Notte di Natale, se non si sono ricevuti libri?”
― Selma Lagerlöf

“... I see the green earth covered with the works of man or with the ruins of men’s work. The pyramids weigh down the earth, the tower of Babel has pierced the sky, the lovely temples and the gray castles have fallen into ruins. But of all those things which hands have built, what hasn’t fallen nor ever will fall? Dear friends, throw away the trowel and mortarboard! Throw your masons’ aprons over your heads and lie down to build dreams! What are temples of stone and clay to the soul? Learn to build eternal mansions of dreams and visions!”
― Selma Lagerlöf, Gösta Berling's Saga

“He needed so much to weep. All the distrust of life which misfortunes had brought to the little Värmland boy needed tears to wash it away. Distrust that love and joy, beauty and strength blossomed on the earth, distrust in himself, all must go, all did go, for it was Easter; the dead lived and the Spirit of Fasting would never again come into power.”
― Selma Lagerlöf, Invisible Links

“We are the poem's ancient band of twelve that proceeds through the ages. There were twelve of us, when we ruled the world on the cloud-covered top of Olympus, and twelve when we lived as birds in Ygdrasil's green crown. Wherever poetry went forth, there we followed. Did we not sit, twelve men strong, at King Arthur's round table, and did twelve paladins not go in Charles the Twelfth's great army? On of us has been Thor, another Jupiter, as any man should be able to see in us yet today. The divine splendor can be sensed under the rags, the lion's mane under the donkey hide. Time has treated us badly, but when we are there, the smithy becomes Mount Olympus and the cavalier's wing a Valhalla.”
― Selma Lagerlöf, Gösta Berling's Saga

“Hon hade lärt sig älska kärleken med all dess plåga, dess tårar, dess längtan .
- Bättre sorgsen med den än glad utan den, sade hon.”
― Selma Lagerlöf, Gösta Berling's Saga

“Old butterflies should have the sense to die while the summer sun is shining,”
― Selma Lagerlöf, Gösta Berling's Saga

“Strange, when you ask anyone's advice you see yourself what is right. Even while you are asking, you discover all at once what you hadn't been able to find out in three whole years.”
― Selma Lagerlöf, Jerusalem

“Assim manda a justiça - a inteligência e a sabedoria foram e são ainda hoje as qualidades que transformam o mendigo em príncipe.”
― Selma Lagerlöf, The Wonderful Adventures of Nils

“For, so long as there are interesting books to read, it seems to me that neither I nor anyone else, for that matter, need be unhappy.”
― Selma Lagerlöf

“Shouldn't we fear life? Who steers a safe boat? Around us sorrow swells like a heaving ocean; we can see how the hungry waves lick the ship's sides, how they climb to board her. No safe anchorage, no solid ground, no steady ship, as far as the eye can see; only an unknown sky over an ocean full of trouble!”
― Selma Lagerlöf

“She does not see that he is old. She only sees his eyes, his eyes.”
― Selma Lagerlöf, Gösta Berling's Saga

“quanto mais coisas vos entrarem na cabeça, tanto mais espaço fica para outras.”
― Selma Lagerlöf, The Wonderful Adventures of Nils

“La trappola per topi è un regalo di Natale, da parte di un topo che sarebbe rimasto catturato nella trappola del mondo se non era stato elevato a capitano di cavalleria. E allora ebbe la forza di cavarsela.”
― Selma Lagerlöf, Il libro di Natale

“Vad brydde han sig om att leva, när inte den lilla flickan kom tillbaka?”
― Selma Lagerlöf

“strax glimmade ett annat fram på litet avstånd. De hade ljus utställda i alla fönster för att visa fattiga vandrare till rätta på kyrkvägen.”
― Selma Lagerlöf, Kejsarn av Portugallien

“...devo dire che c’è una tradizione a Mårbacka, che quando si va a dormire la Vigilia di Natale si ha il permesso di avvicinare un tavolino al letto, metterci sopra una candela e poi leggere finché si vuole. Questa è la più grande di tutte le gioie di Natale. Non c’è niente di più bello che starsene lì sdraiati con un bel libro avuto in regalo, un libro nuovo che non si è ancora mai visto e che nessun altro in casa conosce, e sapere che si può leggere pagina dopo pagina finché si riesce a stare svegli.”
― Selma Lagerlöf, Il libro di Natale

“Or if this did not help, one stormy night I would let the fire approach the buckling wooden walls and let it ravage everything, so that people might no longer be enticed to dwell in this home of misfortune. Then no one would be able to enter this doomed place, only the church steeple's black jackdaws would found a colony in the large chimney, rising, blackened and eerie, over the desolate ground.
Yet I would surely be anxious when I saw the flames intertwined over the roof, when thick smoke, reddened by the firelight and interspersed with sparks, poured forth out of the old count's estate. In the crackling and sighing I would think I heard the lament of homeless people; at the blue tips of the flames I would think I saw disturbed phantasms hovering. I would think about how sorrow beautifies, how misfortune adorns, and weep, as if a temple to old gods had been doomed to disintegration.”
― Selma Lagerlöf, Gösta Berling's Saga

“Hur mycket oftare blir man inte stucken av en ros än bränd av en nässla.”
― Selma Lagerlöf

“Må andra lyssna till tal om blommor och solsken, men för mig väljer jag de mörka nätterna, fulla av syner och äventyr, för mig de hårda ödena, för mig förvildade hjärtans sorguppfyllda lidelser.”
― Selma Lagerlöf, Gösta Berling's Saga

“Hon kunde aldrig hänge sig helt åt något. Om hon älskade, ja, vad hon än gjorde, stod liksom ena hälften av hennes jag och såg på med ett kallt hånlöje.”
― Selma Lagerlöf, Gösta Berling's Saga

“Wie begrijpt, die haat niet.”
― Selma Lagerlöf, Gösta Berling's Saga

“Dagegen fühlten jetzt alle, die Beflügelten und die Flügellosen, einen Drang
in sich, ungeheuer hoch hinaufzusteigen, ja bis über die Wolken hinauf, um zu sehen,
was sich darüber befinde, einen Drang, den schweren Körper zu verlassen,
der sie auf die Erde hinabzog, und nach dem Überirdischen hinzuschweben.”
― Selma Lagerlöf, Nils Holgerssons schönste Abenteuer mit den Wildgänsen.

“There was one of the people of that time too, who had opened her soul to the spirit with the eyes of ice. He sat by one of them, keeping watch at the source of action, smiling scornfully at evil and good, fathoming everything, judging nothing, investigating, searching, picking apart, paralysing the movements of the heart and the force of thought by smiling scornfully without return.
The lovely Marianne carried the spirit of self-observation within her. She felt his eyes of ice and scornful smile follow every step, every word. Her life had turned into a play, where he was the only spectator. She was no longer a person: she did not suffer, she did not rejoice, she did not love, she performed the role of the lovely Marianne Sinclaire, and self-observation sat with staring eyes of ice and diligent, disassembling fingers and watched her perform.
She was divided into two halves. Pale, unsympathetic, and scornful, one half of herself sat and watched how the other half acted, and never did the peculiar spirit that picked apart her being have a word of feeling or sympathy.”
― Selma Lagerlöf, Gösta Berling's Saga

“miracle”
― Selma Lagerlöf, The Miracles of Antichrist

“Ouvira muitas vezes falar do fim do mundo, mas sempre imaginara que este se manifestaria por uma tempestade terrível e um abalo de terra que precipitaria as montanhas nos mares e faria transbordar a água dos lagos, inundando vales e planícies, exterminando todos os seres vivos. Nunca pensara que o fim do mundo pudesse dar-se deste modo, com o céu a cobrir, a esmagar a terra, matando as pessoas por asfixia.”
― Selma Lagerlöf, The Emperor of Portugalia

“Where are the gods of the east, the strong heroes who carried lightning as a weapon, those who on the shores of sacred rivers took offerings of honey and milk? They are dead. Dead is Bel, the strong warrior, and Thot, the hawk-headed champion. Dead are the magnificents who rested on the cloud beds of Olympus, as are the adventurers who lived in walled Valhalla. All the gods of the ancients are dead except Eros, the all-governing.”
― Selma Lagerlöf, Gösta Berling's Saga