"I could best believe that love was some sort of rubbish thought up by the romantic geniuses who were now going to start bellowing like cows, or even dying; at least, there is no mention of love in Njal's Saga, which is nevertheless better than any romantic literature. I had lived for twenty years with the best people in the country, my father and mother, and never heard love mentioned. This couple begat us children, certainly; but not from love; rather, as an element of the simple life of poor people who have no pastimes. On the other hand I had never heard a cross word pass between them all my life—but is that love? I hardly think so. I think love is a pastime amongst sterile folk in towns, and takes the place of the simple life."
React to this quote
More by Halldór Laxness
See allResonant Thoughts
"But as I had forsaken the priests, so I left the separate preachers also, and those esteemed the most experienced people; for I saw there was none among them all that could speak to my condition. And …"
Explore Further
Related Quotes
"The Spirit of God now speaks within our own spirit in its hidden immersion: ‘Go out, into a state of eterna…"
— John Ruysbroeck"Online texts of Hopkins Poems: First Edition"
— Gerard Manley Hopkins"I did it. I got us all out. Without Halle too. Up till then it was the only thing I ever did on my own. Dec…"
— Toni Morrison"Religion doesn’t solve the problem of rape at all; it exacerbates it. It should be that women could walk ab…"
— Aron Ra"Consider little children. There are not many of them not cute and lovable and precious, sweet as whipped ho…"
— Glen Cook"I will not listen to childcare lectures from a man who put his daughter in a box and shipped her to Maine."
— Jane Espenson
