Selma Lagerlof Quotes & Sayings

If dead things love, if earth and water distinguish friends from enemies, I should like to possess their love. I should like the green earth not to feel my step as a heavy burden. I should like her to forgive that she for my sake is wounded by plough and harrow, and willingly to open for my dead body. — Selma Lagerlof

What is so certain of victory as patience? — Selma Lagerlof

Women can do nothing that has permanence. — Selma Lagerlof

It is a strange thing to come home. While yet on the journey, you cannot at all realize how strange it will be. — Selma Lagerlof

What would have become of me if no one had wanted to read my books? And don't forget all those who have written of me. — Selma Lagerlof

More die in flight than in battle. — Selma Lagerlof

There isn't much that tastes better than praise from those who are wise and capable. — Selma Lagerlof

There is so much one would rather not believe until one has seen for oneself whether it is true. — Selma Lagerlof

He who is sorrowful can force himself to smile, but he who is glad cannot weep. — Selma Lagerlof

There is so little that one can do for the dead! — Selma Lagerlof

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 Lagerlof

Nothing on earth can make up for the loss of one who has loved you. — Selma Lagerlof

There is always a third possibility, as long as you have the ability to find it. — Selma Lagerlof

The ways of Providence cannot be reasoned out by the finite mind ... I cannot fathom them, yet seeking to know them is the most satisfying thing in all the world. — Selma Lagerlof

It is often the case with the silent children about us, that they cherish a dream which they dare not talk about. — Selma Lagerlof

It is not a good omen to meet a lot of cats when one sets out on a journey, so the Lieutenant spat three times for each cat, as his mother had taught him to do ... — Selma Lagerlof

Strange, when you ask anyone's advice you see yourself what is right. — Selma Lagerlof

Anyone who has ever sat in a train as it rushes through a dark night will know that sometimes there are long minutes when the coaches slide smoothly along without so much as a shudder. — Selma Lagerlof

I thought of my father and felt a deep sorrow that he should no longer be alive, and that I could not go to him and tell him that I had been awarded the Nobel Prize. I knew that no one would have been happier than he to hear this. — Selma Lagerlof

No one is able to enjoy such feast than the one who throws a party in his own mind. — Selma Lagerlof

Here, no mercy is shown. One hates one's fellow man to the glory of God. — Selma Lagerlof

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 Lagerlof

A man may be outlawed for the sake of a fish net he has never seen. — Selma Lagerlof

Never repeat a rumor before you have verified it. And if it is true, hold your tongue all the more. — Selma Lagerlof

Young horses who cannot bear the whip or spur find life hard. At every smart they start forward and rush to their destruction, and when the way is stony and difficult, they know no better expedient than to overturn the cart and gallop madly away. — Selma Lagerlof

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 Lagerlof

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 Lagerlof

I had become shy of life's bustle in my solitary retreat and was apprehensive at the thought of facing the world. — Selma Lagerlof

For what is man's soul but a flame? It flickers in and around the body of a man as does the flame around the rough log. — Selma Lagerlof