The Wonderful Adventures Of Nils Quotes
"It is as though the book had sprung direct from the soul of the Swedish nation."
"The significant thing about this book is: while one follows with breathless interest the shifting scenes and adventures, one learns many things without being conscious of it."
"Her style throughout is the simplest, the most facile for children to grasp."
"She knew how to combine the useful with the beautiful, as no pedant of the practical, or the aesthetic, has ever dreamed it."
"The boy thought that never had he seen his mother so persistent."
"It’s a fact that we have run across a stuck-up goose folk who despise all tame birds."
"If I don’t get the one, I shall certainly have the other."
"It was probably something she had thought of getting rid of the old things; but somehow, she hadn’t had the heart to do it."
"Be it as it may with this; but one thing is certain, we, on this farm, have behaved in such a manner that we are shamed before both animals and human beings."
"It’s a fact that ice is always treacherous and not to be trusted."
"The next morning the geese were awake at daybreak, long before sunrise."
"The wild geese travelled over Övid’s Cloister estate which was situated in a beautiful park east of the lake."
"When the wild geese rode over the estate in the early morning hour there was no human being about."
"Instantly the dog came out of his kennel—furiously angry—and barked at the air."
"The boy couldn’t comprehend the reason for the delay, but he figured it out in this way."
"Come what might, he was only glad for every moment that should pass before he must face his parents."
"Before he fell asleep, he lay and thought that if he might go along with the wild geese, he would escape all scoldings because he was lazy."
""If I could only go with the wild geese on their travels, I shouldn’t grieve because I’d been transformed," thought the boy."
"The wild geese challenged the white goosey-gander to take part in all kinds of sports."
"The old gray leader-goose came up to him, and asked if he had found anything eatable."
"I don’t want to be human," bawled the boy. "I want to go with you to Lapland."
"But he needed so little nowadays; and there would always be a way to get that."
""I don’t want to forbid you to come along with us as far as you like," said Akka."
""Thanks!" said the boy, and he felt so happy that he had to cry for very joy."
"The inhabitants of the old city of Vineta cannot die, neither is their city destroyed. One night in every hundred years, it rises in all its splendour from the sea and remains on the surface just one hour."
"I believe that it would be better for you to fly about in the worst storm than to stop here. But, at least, you shall not go from here before we have had the privilege of offering you the best hospitality which the house affords."
"We cannot help ourselves any better than if we were tame sheep."
"If only the boy had had time enough he could have learned how to make all sorts of things."
"Anything like this my eyes have never seen before. Anything like this, they would never see again."
"It is tonight that all the witches come home from Blakulla."
"I will never be so rich that I can buy even a metre of that cloth."
"You have eaten yourselves too fat on mutton, foxes. You can't catch up with a goose even."
"He that is little and spry can put many things to rights."
"No one can describe his amazement. Before he was aware of it, the wide, blue sea lay before him."
"He believed that this city was just as beautiful as the one he had seen on Easter night."
"There was the same contrast between them, as there is between a man whom one sees arrayed in purple and jewels one day, and on another day one sees him dressed in rags."
"There was nothing left but the naked, gray stone skeleton."
"He knew, he did, what a stream of stately people had once upon a time sauntered about on them."
"His eyes were so filled with the preceding glory, that he could not see anything good in the present."
"He thought he didn’t want to grieve any more because he couldn’t save the buried city."
"Perhaps it could not have withstood time and decay, but would have stood there with roofless churches and bare houses and desolate, empty streets—just like this one."
"If only the children do not hear of this! If only the children do not hear of this!"
"Good times are coming for me too, if only my children grow up."
"You see, Rödlinna, if there had been large, rich fields here, in place of these barren swamps, then there would have been no need for them to leave."
"There must be someone like myself to rouse them and keep them in good spirits."
"We have summoned you hither, Karr, that we may learn if the humans know of this desolation."
"No one can tell," answered Grayskin. "This insect family used to be the least hurtful of any in the forest, and never before have they done any damage."
"You just lie down!" said the elk bull. "There are no poachers coming here; of that you may be certain."
"I have never heard of an elk killing a harmless creature."
"Stay here, wild geese, until all is over! And the next time you fly over Kolmården, look up Karr, and ask him if he doesn't think that his friend Grayskin has met with a happy end?"
"I was born and raised on that farm," said the horse; "I know that there is a large barn and a big cow shed, with many empty stalls and mangers."
"I only thought that, inasmuch as the horse once belonged to you, you might wish to give him a comfortable home in his old age; he has need of it."
"It was strange that he should have forgotten the beast so entirely!"
"He knew, of course, that folk said his father was stingy; but it was well to keep a tight hold on one’s purse and not throw away money needlessly."
"The wind was beginning to rage, and he had been standing there getting so sleepy that he mistook the howling of the wind in the chimney for human speech."
"His old horse was standing in this storm without so much as a blanket to protect him!"
"We can try, but it is doubtful that they will even let us enter."
"When she made me promise that every night I would say my evening prayer. I must do this, and Britta Maja too. As soon as we have said 'God who cares for little children—' we’ll be quiet."
"Those whom you have brought with you may remain here, but you shall come with me to the stable."
"Father had his day at ruling. Now it is your day. As long as father lived we had to obey him. Now is the time to show what you are."
"You can’t complain. Now you’d better take out some of the food you have with you and eat your fill, for here you’ll get no food, as all the women folk are in bed."
"Come with me to my cottage, and my mother will take care of you."
"Don’t you recollect how you danced with the mermaids?"
"If I show you your seal skin, you’ll probably believe me!"
"He understood how all this had come to pass."
"You must make yourself at home here, Clement."
"Here no one need feel homesick, for here all Swedes are at home."
"Do you think that I wish to be the friend of a bird-eater?"
"I’m sitting here dreaming that I am free, and am soaring away up among the clouds."
"Why do grouse and lemming run and hide when they see my shadow on the cliff?"
"Wild geese must learn to eat air and drink wind."
"The longer you keep it up, the better it will go."
"The more you put into your heads the more you can get into them."
"The geese were now flying over Bohuslän with all the speed they could muster."
"I might possibly miss not being in danger of my life at least once every day or two."
"Anyhow it’s best to be content with things as they are."
"I would rather see the fat grain fields of Söderslätt than these lean hills."
"It’s not much of a place now compared to what it was once."
"It’s not worth while to be sad, Nils Holgersson. This is a beautiful world to live in both for big and little. It is also good to be free and happy, and to have a great dome of open sky above you."
"Nothing serious. It’s just this: we seven who have been long together want to fly a short distance out to sea tonight, and we wondered if you would care to come with us."
"I’m sure, Gorgo, that you have done more than you care to admit. But before you relate your experiences on the trip, I shall ask Thumbietot to help me find something which is supposed to be buried on this island."
"You must have wondered, Thumbietot, why we turned out of our course to fly here to the West Sea."
"We think also, that when a human being has attended us on a whole journey he shouldn’t be allowed to leave us as poor as when he came."
"I know that what I have learned this year with you is worth more to me than gold or lands."
"It is cruel of the elf to make the conditions so hard for me that I can not go home and relieve my parents, but he shan’t turn me into a traitor to a friend!"
"Now look down! Look all around! It is like this in foreign lands."
"There’s a little matter I should have mentioned to you before this, but since you are not going back to your home for good, I thought there was no hurry about it."
"They have a hard enough time of it already. Must I bring them a new sorrow?"
"Welcome home, Nils Holgersson! Welcome home! This is the first glad moment I have known for ever so long!"
"I verily believe there is something sharp here!"
"The Lord be praised that I have you back again! Come in, my boy! Come in!"
"Mother and father! I’m a big boy. I am a human being again!"
"Alas! he is a man. He does not understand us: we do not understand him!"