Selma LagerlÃ¶f famous quotes

07-16-2025

Nothing on earth can make up for the loss of one who has loved you.
-- Selma LagerlÃ¶f

#Death #Loss #Earth
No one is able to enjoy such feast than the one who throws a party in his own mind.
-- Selma LagerlÃ¶f

#Party #Writing #Mind
Strange, when you ask anyone's advice you see yourself what is right.
-- Selma LagerlÃ¶f

#Advice #Strange
It is a strange thing to come home. While yet on the journey, you cannot at all realize how strange it will be.
-- Selma LagerlÃ¶f

#Spiritual #Travel #Home
There is so much one would rather not believe until one has seen for oneself whether it is true.
-- Selma LagerlÃ¶f

#Believe #Belief #Oneself
There isn't much that tastes better than praise from those who are wise and capable.
-- Selma LagerlÃ¶f

#Wise #Taste #Praise
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 LagerlÃ¶f

#Life #Horse #Smart
Have you ever seen a child sitting on its motherâ€™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 LagerlÃ¶f

#Beautiful #Mother #Children
There is always a third possibility, as long as you have the ability to find it.
-- Selma LagerlÃ¶f

#Long #Possibility #Ability
It is often the case with the silent children about us, that they cherish a dream which they dare not talk about.
-- Selma LagerlÃ¶f

#Dream #Children #Cherish
... I see the green earth covered with the works of man or with the ruins of menâ€™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 hasnâ€™t fallen nor ever will fall? Dear friends, throw away the trowel and mortarboard! Throw your masonsâ€™ 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 LagerlÃ¶f

#Dream #Lying #Fall
Women can do nothing that has permanence.
-- Selma LagerlÃ¶f

#Permanence
More die in flight than in battle.
-- Selma LagerlÃ¶f

#War #Battle #Flight
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 LagerlÃ¶f

#Men #Flames #Soul
What is so certain of victory as patience?
-- Selma LagerlÃ¶f

#Patience #Victory #Certain
A man may be outlawed for the sake of a fish net he has never seen.
-- Selma LagerlÃ¶f

#Men #May #Sake
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 LagerlÃ¶f

#God #Mind #Way
There is so little that one can do for the dead!
-- Selma LagerlÃ¶f

#Littles
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 LagerlÃ¶f

#Mother #Cat #Journey
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 LagerlÃ¶f

#Book #Interesting #Long
Here, no mercy is shown. One hates one's fellow man to the glory of God.
-- Selma LagerlÃ¶f

#Hate #Men #Atheism
He who is sorrowful can force himself to smile, but he who is glad cannot weep.
-- Selma LagerlÃ¶f

#Personality #Force #Sorrowful
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 LagerlÃ¶f

#Water #Forgiving #Enemy

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