Quotes by Knut Hamsun

“An increasing number of people who lead mental lives of great intensity, people who are sensitive by nature, notice the steadily more frequent appearance in them of mental states of great strangene...”

“It was not my intention to collapse; no, I would die standing.”

“The poet must always, in every instance, have the vibrant word... that by it's trenchancy can so wound my soul that it whimpers.... One must know and recognize not merely the direct but the secret ...”

“I can't even make up a rhyme about an umbrella, let alone death and life and eternal peace.”

“But what really matters is not what you believe but the faith and conviction with which you believe”

“Do not forget, some give little, and it is much for them, others give all, and it costs them no effort; who then has given most?”

“He was quite a Casanova, no doubt about it. He was in a very good mood today and stopped longer than usual. The girls could see he was gloriously drunk. Well, Ragna, why do you think I come here so...”

“Well, God be with you, she said as she finally left him. Im sure He is, he replied. She gave a start. Are you certain of that?He has every reason to be. Obviously Hes Lord over all Creation, but it...”

“And here we go creating great men out of artisans who happened to have stumbled on a way to improve electrical apparatus or pedal through Sweden on a bicycle! And we solicit great men to write book...”

“No, I don't admire the genius. But I admire and love the result of the genius's activity in the world, of which the great man is only the poor necessary tool, only, so to speak, the paltry awl to b...”

“God is forgotten, the mighty dollar has taken his place and the mechanic cannot ease the troubled soul. The road is closed. Under circumstances such as these America only increases speed. America w...”

“But now it was spring again, and spring was almost unbearable for sensitive hearts. It drove creation to its utmost limits, it wafted its spice-laden breath even into the nostrils of the innocent.”

“You are right; I am not good at moving in society. Be merciful. You do not understand me; I live in the woods by choice--that is my happiness. Here, where I am all alone, it can hurt no one that I ...”

“I opened my eyes; how could I keep them shut when I could not sleep? The same darkness brooded over me; the same unfathomable black eternity which my thoughts strove against and could not understan...”

“That room was Rolandsens world. Rolandsen was not just irresponsibility and inebriation, he was also great thinker and inventor. There was a smell of acids that permeated the corridor and came to t...”

“They walked away from the sea, Rolandsen in the lead. He kept to the edge of the road, in the snow, to leave room for the others. He was wearing light, fashionable shoes, but seemed unperturbed; he...”

“Young hearts have their unfathomable depths.”

“No worse fate can befall a young man or woman than becoming prematurely entrenched in prudence and negation.”

“Summer is the time for dreaming, and then you have to stop. But some people go on dreaming all their lives, and cannot change.”

“But now the world breaks in on us, the world is shocked, the world looks upon our idyll as madness. The world maintains that no rational man or woman would have chosen this way of life - therefore,...”