#life
"He would have died of loneliness and other things if the divine Omnipotence had not called him whenever It had the chance and invited him to become one with the radiant glory of heaven and earth. He tried whenever the opportunity occurred to obey this call and allow his soul to become one with a higher world beyond this world. He did not compose poetry openly now—his first experience at that had taught him a lesson; he resolved not to compose poetry openly until he was grown up and living among good and high-minded men, whom he imagined must exist elsewhere. But that did not stop him composing poetry; he composed just for himself now. Sometimes he scratched out a whole verse on the ice. He committed to memory every scrap of poetry he heard, and absorbed everything to do with knowledge, and was determined to write it all down in books later on—you see, he had the idea that there were too few books in the world, and that somewhere in the world there were people waiting impatiently, hungry for more books to be written."
React to this quote
More by Halldór Laxness
See allResonant Thoughts
"In America, the powers of sovereignty are divided between the Government of the Union and those of the States. They are each sovereign with respect to the objects committed to it, and neither sovereig…"
— John Marshall
Politics1941–2023
Explore Further
Related Quotes
"For we die every day; oblivion thrives"
— Vladimir Nabokov"Life is about relationships"
— Bassel Khartabil"What hurt him most of all, made him feel like a sick child aware of terrible wrongness and yet incapable of…"
— John Brunner"I don't mind anybody dropping out of anything, but it's the imposition on somebody else I don't like. The m…"
— George Harrison"Each individual bears within himself an ideal man, and to bring him forth in perfect form is his divinely i…"
— John Lancaster Spalding"My first words, as I was being born... I looked up at my mother and said, "that's the last time I'm coming …"
— Stephen Fry

