Halldór Laxness Quotes

1902–1998 Iceland

Halldór Kiljan Laxness (23 April 1902 – 8 February 1998), born Halldór Guðjónsson, was a 20th century Icelandic author who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1955.

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Random Halldór Laxness quote

126 quotes

Yes, it is a painful lot to be a poet and to love both God and man by the farthest northern seas!

Heimsljós (World Light) (1940)

Flowers are immortal. You cut them in autumn and they grow again in spring—somewhere.

Atómstöðin (The Atom Station) (1948)

Although grace comes from above, that is not to say that everyone has the ability to accept to it.

Heimsljós (World Light) (1940)

One of the first things I had been taught as a child was never to believe a single word that was written in newspapers.

Atómstöðin (The Atom Station) (1948)

It's an old saying that one still has to know something, despite everything.

Kristnihald undir Jökli (Under the Glacier/Christianity at Glacier) (1968)

I don't know how to lie. But I don't know what truth is, either. I always try to speak the way I think will cause least trouble to God and men.

Heimsljós (World Light) (1940)

Everyone always believes everything nasty of everyone else, and especially if it's a lie.

Heimsljós (World Light) (1940)

The truth displayed in a good life is the fairest of images.

Íslandsklukkan (Iceland's Bell) (1946)

You can take everything from me except the freedom to look up at the sky occasionally.

Heimsljós (World Light) (1940)

I say, and have always said, and will always say: the fish that does not sing throughout the whole world is a dead fish.

Brekkukotsannáll (The Fish Can Sing) (1957)

How is one to have any respect for the world where nothing else matters except who can lie the most plausibly and steal the most?

Heimsljós (World Light) (1940)

In the afterlife, people never forget to feed the dog.

Heimsljós (World Light) (1940)

There's no creature on earth so despicable and loathsome as a rich man with a conscience.

Heimsljós (World Light) (1940)

Because there are indeed women in Iceland, it will now be proven to you, you ugly wench, that there are also men in Iceland!

Íslandsklukkan (Iceland's Bell) (1946)

I swear—swear—swear: by everything which is and has been sacred to this nation from the beginning: Iceland shall not be sold.

Atómstöðin (The Atom Station) (1948)

You have fettered yourself of your own free will, man—break the fetters!

Heimsljós (World Light) (1940)

No one is so busy that he hasn't the time to dismantle a work of art.

Kristnihald undir Jökli (Under the Glacier/Christianity at Glacier) (1968)

Isn't it funny how everyone manages to die except me?

Sjálfstætt fólk (Independent People) (1935)

The reason a man talks is to hide his thoughts.

Atómstöðin (The Atom Station) (1948)

It is justice, not love, that will one day give life to the children of the future. The battle for justice is the one thing which gives human life rational meaning.

Heimsljós (World Light) (1940)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Halldór Laxness (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.