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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.

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

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More quotes by Halldór Laxness

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)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Halldór Laxness (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.