Brothers Grimm Quotes

“Evil is also not anything small or close to home, and not the worst; otherwise one could grow accustomed to it.”
― Brothers Grimm, The Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm - Illustrated by Arthur Rackham

“I find that those who have the most to lose are the most motivated”
― Brothers Grimm

“Princess, princess, youngest daughter,
Open up and let me in!
Or else your promise by the water
Isn’t worth a rusty pin.
Keep your promise, royal daughter,
Open up and let me in!”
― Philip Pullman, Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm: A New English Version

“Fairy tales might not be history, but as I learned in the hours I spent in the library over Christmas break, Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm were historians. They didn’t invent their fairy tales—they collected them, writing down the folk tales and stories they heard from friends and servants, aristocrats and innkeepers’ daughters.

Their first collection of stories was meant for grown-ups and I could see why—they’re way too bloody and creepy for children. Even the heroes go around boiling people in oil and feeding them red-hot coals. Imagine Disney making a musical version of “The Girl Without Hands,” a story about a girl whose widowed father chops off her hands when she refuses to marry him!”
― Polly Shulman, The Grimm Legacy

“I shall eat anyone who tries to steal my singing, springing lark!”
― Jacob Grimm, The Singing, Springing Lark

“If someone loses a key and then finds it again, which key does one keep, the old or the new?
The queen replied; 'Certainly the old one.”
― Jack Zipes, The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm

“Still, she stood looking fabulous like a princess should, licking her blood red lips the moment she laid her eyes on the beautiful prince. It was appetite on first sight.”
― Cameron Jace

“Groups of children gathered around them and gave them flowers and placed colored ribbons at their feet. After they were blessed at the wedding, they had a merry celebration, but the false mother and false bride had to leave.
And the lips are still warm on the last person who told this tale.
-The Children Of The Two Kings”
― Jack Zipes, The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm

“Hallo, Fremder", sagte er zu dem zweiten Reisenden. "Die Welt ist klein! Lange her, seit unsere Köpfe Seite an Seite auf dem Kissen lagen."
"Eine Ewigkeit!", rief der andere.
Da wusste Clement, dass sie alle einander fremd waren und dass die stürmische Nacht vor ihnen lag.”
― Eudora Welty, The Robber Bridegroom

“Then I saw two greyhounds dragging a mill out of the water, and an old-worn-out horse stood there and said it was all right. And in the courtyard there were four horses threshing grain with all their might, and two goats were heating the stove, and a red cow shoved the bread into the oven. Then a chicken crowed, 'Cock-a-doodle doo! The tale is done, cock-a-doodle-doo!'
-The Tale About The Land of Cockaigne”
― Jack Zipes (translator), John B. Gruelle (illustrator)

“I must recognize Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm (the Brothers Grimm), German philologists and folktale collectors. Their beautiful collections of tales bore tidings of reworked childhood fantasies that enriched my very young soul. Pridian reflections would be incomplete without mentioning their heart-racing tales of which RUMPELSTILTSKIN has always remained my favourite.”
― Nkwachukwu Ogbuagu