Halldór Laxness quotes

Remember, any lie you are told, even deliberately, is often a more significant fact than a truth told in all sincerity. (Halldór Laxness)
Whoever doesn't live in poetry cannot survive here on earth.
Halldór Laxness
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.
Halldór Laxness
b>Oh, it's so good to be dead! - little Anna.
Halldór Laxness
A man's conscience is an unsteady judge of right and wrong.
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 better.
Halldór Laxness
The most remarkable thing about man's dreams is that they all come true; this has always been the case, though no one would care to admit it.
Halldór Laxness
The fire's hottest for the one who burns himself.
Halldór Laxness
Where the glacier meets the sky, the land ceases to be earthly, and the earth becomes one with the heavens; no sorrows live there anymore, and therefore joy is not necessary; beauty alone reigns there, beyond all demands.
Halldór Laxness
What you have stolen can never be yours. (Halldór Laxness)
My opinion has always been this, that you ought to never give up as long as you live, even though they have stolen everything from you. If nothing else, you can always call the air you breath your own, or at any rate you can claim that you have it on loan. Yes, lass, last night I ate stolen bread and left my son among men who are going to use pick-handles on the authorities, so I thought I might just as well look you up this morning.
Halldór Laxness
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.
Halldór Laxness
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
You have fettered yourself of your own free will, man - break the fetters!
Halldór Laxness
The reason a man talks is to hide his thoughts.
Halldór Laxness
Misdeeds that are repented no longer exist.
Halldór Laxness
[T]o anyone who weeps, life has some importance.
Halldór Laxness
Gold is precious because it resembles the sun. Silver has the light of the moon.
Halldór Laxness
It's an old saying that one still has to know something, despite everything.
Halldór Laxness
Anyone who doesn't know others doesn't know himself. (Halldór Laxness)
It's a pity we don't whistle at one another, like birds. Words are misleading.
Halldór Laxness
I don't know how to lie. But I don't know what truth is, either. I always try to speak the way I think will cause least trouble to God and men.
Halldór Laxness
Suicide-masturbation multiplied by itself!
Halldór Laxness
My mother once sent me out to buy pepper, and I have not returned home yet.
Halldór Laxness