Halldór Laxness

“Sin - sin is God’s most precious gift.”

— Halldór Laxness

My motto is strong packaging, clear addressing.

— Halldór Laxness

A free man can live on fish.Independence is better than meat

— Halldór Laxness

“All great wealth was inconsistent with common sense. (from 'The Fish can Sing”

— Halldór Laxness

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

— Halldór Laxness

“...nothing is true that cannot be proven--and therefore, it's not true.”

— Halldór Laxness

“a land even more remote, America, which is farther than death.”

— Halldór Laxness

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

— Halldór Laxness

Icelanders are grateful to meet foreigners who have heard of their country. And even more grateful to hear someone say it deserves…

— Halldór Laxness

A wise man once said that next to losing its mother, there is nothing more healthy for a child than to lose…

— Halldór Laxness

“That blasted family could never look at a living thing without wanting to make a profit out of it, preferably by killing…

— Halldór Laxness

“The life of man is so short that ordinary people simply cannot afford to be born”

— Halldór Laxness

For man is essentially alone, and one should pity him and love him and grieve with him.

— Halldór Laxness

“But perhaps no distance is greater than that which separates a poor family in the same country”

— Halldór Laxness

“On olemassa kasvoja, joilla on valtaa ihmisen ylitse siihen saakka, kun hän jonakin kauniina päivänä loppuu.”

— Halldór Laxness

“So I see no reason why, just because a couple of womenfolk have kicked the bucket, people should start writing religion about…

— Halldór Laxness

“Now pastor Jón Prímus laughed. Philosophy and theology have no effect on him, much less plain common sense. Impossible to convince this…

— Halldór Laxness

“Quite so. On the other hand, I am like that horse that was dumbfounded for twenty-four hours. For a long time I…

— Halldor Laxness

“Somewhere, out in the infinite distance, lay the spring, at least in God's mind, like babies that are not yet conceived in…

— Halldór Laxness

“We Danes have always been charitable in our trading operations with Iceland. And when our deceased Highness monopolized trade with the island…

— Halldór Laxness

“The difference between a novelist and a historian is this: that the former tells lies deliberately and for the fun of it;…

— Halldor Laxness

The tyranny of mankind; it was like the obstinate drip of water falling on a stone and hollowing it little by little;…

— Halldór Laxness

“He did not know what to say in the face of such sorrow. He sat in silence by his sister's side in…

— Halldor Laxness

“It was pretty miserable wretches that minded at all whether they were wet or dry. He could not understand why such people…

— Halldór Laxness

“Man is more perfect than god. Although this woman's doctrine, in which she was brought up from childhood, told her than all…

— Halldór Laxness

“In his contradictions he was as much an enigma as the country itself: a religious devotee out of spite at the soullessness…

— Halldór Laxness

Bjartur declared that he had never denied that there was much that was strange in nature. "I consider that there's nothing wrong…

— Halldór Laxness

“She was like defenceless Nature, that withers in the blast because it has shelter neither of God nor of men; human beings…

— Halldór Laxness

“But he could not help it. No one can help it. One is a realist. One has put up with it all…

— Halldor Laxness

My opinion has always been this, that you ought to never give up as long as you live, even though they have…

— Halldór Laxness

“One can be one's own ghost and roam about in various places, sometimes many places simultaneously. Perhaps I didn't approach it quite…

— Halldor Laxness

“He disliked tears, he has always disliked tears, had never understood them, and sometimes lost his temper over them; but he felt…

— Halldór Laxness

“Pastor Jón: God has the virtue that one can locate Him anywhere at all, in anything at all. Embi: In a nail,…

— Halldór Laxness

“Pastor Jón: The Úa who came is not the one who went away. Because in the first place Úa cannot go away,…

— Halldór Laxness

“Dr. Syngmann: I am talking about the only quality that was worth creating the world for, the only power that is worth…

— Halldór Laxness

“The distinctive features of the world's civilisations are not simply and solely the giraffe and the city of Rome, as the children…

— Halldór Laxness

“The story of how He created the world aroused their interests immediately, even though they received no answer to the question of…

— Halldór Laxness

“Because no one of us lives for himself and no one dies for himself. For if we live, then we live for…

— Halldór Laxness

“And Ásta Sóllilja, it was she who swept on wings of poetry into those spheres which she had sensed as if in…

— Halldór Laxness

“It is often said of people with second sight that their soul leaves the body. That doesn't happen to the glacier. But…

— Halldór Laxness