334 Quotes by Danish authors

Danish quotes carry a quiet confidence: modest, wry, and anchored in weathered realism. They favor understatement over flourish, valuing community, craft, and the small mercies of everyday life. From Kierkegaard’s searching doubt to Ditlevsen’s intimate clarity and Piet Hein’s playful grooks, the tone tilts toward dry humor, tender pragmatism, and a bracing sea breeze of truth. Echoes of Janteloven temper ambition with equality; candles, coffee, and long twilights warm the edges. Expect sturdy wisdom, a touch of melancholy, and surprising brightness.

See the complete list of authors from Denmark

"When a business group tells us there is nothing wrong with the environment, naturally they may have good arguments, but we are also sceptical, because we know that they have an interest in these things"

Bjorn Lomborg, Scientist

"I do expose my body, but only because I think people should have something nice to look at"

Brigitte Nielsen, Actress

"It's a very, very tricky situation. I haven't said yes to either of them"

Brigitte Nielsen, Actress

"My suggestion is that we should first work to ensure the Third World has clean drinking water and sanitation"

Bjorn Lomborg, Scientist

"I'm not a real programmer. I throw together things until it works, then I move on. The real programmers will say, 'Yeah, it works, but you're leaking memory everywhere. Perhaps we should fix that.' I'll just restart Apache every 10 requests"

Rasmus Lerdorf, Scientist

Rasmus Lerdorf

"I was born in high heels and I've worn them ever since"

Helena Christensen, Model

Helena Christensen

"Napster hijacked our music without asking. They never sought our permission. Our catalog of music simply became available as free downloads on the Napster system"

Lars Ulrich, Musician

"Without growth we can't pay down our debt, and without growth there's no money for welfare"

Helle Thorning-Schmidt, Politician

"Being born in a duck yard does not matter, if only you are hatched from a swan's egg"

Hans Christian Anderson, Author

"The trouble with life in the fast lane is that you get to the other end in an awful hurry"

John Jensen, Athlete

"Not just in commerce, but in the world of ideas too, our age is putting on a veritable clearance sale. Everything can be had so dirt cheap that one begins to wonder whether in the end anyone will want to make a bid"

Søren Kierkegaard, Philosopher

Søren Kierkegaard

"There are, as is known, insects that die in the moment of fertilization. So it is with all joy: life's highest, most splendid moment of enjoyment is accompanied by death"

Søren Kierkegaard, Philosopher

Søren Kierkegaard

"People commonly travel the world over to see rivers and mountains, new stars, garish birds, freak fish, grotesque breeds of human; they fall into an animal stupor that gapes at existence and they think they have seen something"

Søren Kierkegaard, Philosopher

Søren Kierkegaard

"The more a man can forget, the greater the number of metamorphoses which his life can undergo; the more he can remember, the more divine his life becomes"

Søren Kierkegaard, Philosopher

Søren Kierkegaard

"Since boredom advances and boredom is the root of all evil, no wonder, then, that the world goes backwards, that evil spreads. This can be traced back to the very beginning of the world. The gods were bored; therefore they created human beings"

Søren Kierkegaard, Philosopher

Søren Kierkegaard

"Personality is only ripe when a man has made the truth his own"

Søren Kierkegaard, Philosopher

Søren Kierkegaard

"Listen to the cry of a woman in labor at the hour of giving birth - look at the dying man's struggle at his last extremity, and then tell me whether something that begins and ends thus could be intended for enjoyment?"

Søren Kierkegaard, Philosopher

Søren Kierkegaard

"Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced"

Søren Kierkegaard, Philosopher

Søren Kierkegaard

"Just as in earthly life lovers long for the moment when they are able to breathe forth their love for each other, to let their souls blend in a soft whisper, so the mystic longs for the moment when in prayer he can, as it were, creep into God"

Søren Kierkegaard, Philosopher

Søren Kierkegaard

"It is so hard to believe because it is so hard to obey"

Søren Kierkegaard, Philosopher

Søren Kierkegaard

"I begin with the principle that all men are bores. Surely no one will prove himself so great a bore as to contradict me in this"

Søren Kierkegaard, Philosopher

Søren Kierkegaard

"Far from idleness being the root of all evil, it is rather the only true good"

Søren Kierkegaard, Philosopher

Søren Kierkegaard

"Face the facts of being what you are, for that is what changes what you are"

Søren Kierkegaard, Philosopher

Søren Kierkegaard

"During the first period of a man's life, the greatest danger is not to take the risk"

Søren Kierkegaard, Philosopher

Søren Kierkegaard

"Don't forget to love yourself"

Søren Kierkegaard, Philosopher

Søren Kierkegaard

"Because of its tremendous solemnity, death is the light in which great passions, both good and bad, become transparent, no longer limited by outward appearences"

Søren Kierkegaard, Philosopher

Søren Kierkegaard

"A man who, as a physical being, is always turned toward the outside, thinking that his happiness lies outside him, finally turns inward and discovers that the source is within him"

Søren Kierkegaard, Philosopher

Søren Kierkegaard

"Technology has advanced more in the last thirty years than in the previous two thousand. The exponential increase in advancement will only continue. Anthropological Commentary: The opposite of a trivial truth is false; the opposite of a great truth is also true"

Niels Bohr, Physicist

Niels Bohr

"How wonderful that we have met with a paradox. Now we have some hope of making progress"

Niels Bohr, Physicist

Niels Bohr

"Every sentence I utter must be understood not as an affirmation, but as a question?"

Niels Bohr, Physicist

Niels Bohr

"An expert is someone who knows some of the worst mistakes, which can be made, in a very narrow field"

Niels Bohr, Physicist

Niels Bohr

"A physicist is just an atom's way of looking at itself"

Niels Bohr, Physicist

Niels Bohr

"The beautiful is what gives joy without concept"

H. C. Andersen, Writer

H. C. Andersen

"To be of use in the world is the only way to happiness"

H. C. Andersen, Writer

H. C. Andersen

"The most wonderful result of all education is to make you do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not"

H. C. Andersen, Writer

H. C. Andersen

"I was a town child, it is true, but that did not prevent me enjoying open-air life, with plants and animals"

Georg Brandes, Critic

"He who does not understand a joke, he does not understand Danish"

Georg Brandes, Critic

"My father, though, could run very much faster. It was impossible to compete with him on the grass. But it was astonishing how slow old people were. Some of them could not run up a hill and called it trying to climb stairs"

Georg Brandes, Critic

"Birth was something that came quite unexpectedly, and afterwards there was one child more in the house"

Georg Brandes, Critic

"Furniture manufacturing in plastics requires very costly machinery, which the Danish market is not big enough to justify. Or so they say. But show me a plastics manufacturer who dares to take on the experiment"

Arne Jacobsen, Architect

Arne Jacobsen

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