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Quotes from Kristnihald undir Jökli (Under the Glacier/Christianity at Glacier) — Halldór Laxness

1902–1998 Iceland

← All quotes by Halldór Laxness

15 quotes

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

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

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)

Human beings are constantly inventing new ways of maltreating one other. C'est la vie.

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

One asks and asks and always the answers become more incomprehensible than the question. In the end one becomes an idiot.

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

When I discovered that history is a fable, and a poor one at that, I started looking for a better fable, and found theology.

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

It's a pity we don't whistle at one another, like birds. Words are misleading.

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

The first thing is to have the will; the rest is technique.

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

Of all the creatures that man kills for his amusement there is only one that he kills out of hatred—other men. Man hates nothing as much as himself. That is why war is called the leprosy of the human soul.

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

Oh no, better to be silent. That is what the glacier does. That is what the lilies of the field do.

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

The difference between a novelist and a historian is this: that the former tells lies deliberately and for the fun of it; the historian tells lies in his simplicity and imagines he is telling the truth.

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

It is a waste of words to try to impute to the Creator democratic ideas or social virtues; or to think that one can move Him with weeping and wailing, and persuade Him with logic and legal quibbles. Nothing is so pointless as words.

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

Philosophy and theology have no effect on him, much less plain common sense. Impossible to convince this man by arguments. But humor he always listens to, even though it be ill humor. A typical Icelander, perhaps.

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

I was hoping the bishop would be coming himself. He's a terribly agreeable old chap. I always find it so enjoyable to blether with the old fellow. We don't agree about anything. But everything depends on agreeing to disagree.

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

Don't forget that few people are likely to tell more than a small part of the truth: no one tells much of the truth, let alone the whole truth. Spoken words are facts in themselves, whether true or false. When people talk they reveal themselves, whether they're lying or telling the truth.

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

The mountain reminds one of an upturned earthenware bowl, the glazing a little bluish at times, but sometimes like gold-rimmed transparent Chinese porcelain, especially if the sun is low in the west over the sea, because then the rays play on the glacier in two directions.

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

Attribution

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