Knut Hamsun Quotes

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?

In old age we are like a batch of letters that someone has sent. We are no longer in the past, we have arrived.

Truth is neither ojectivity nor the balanced view; truth is a selfless subjectivity.

I love three things," I then say. "I love a dream of love I once had, I love you, and I love this patch of earth." "And which do you love best?" "The dream.

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

In my solitude, many miles from men and houses, I am in a childishly happy and carefree state of mind, which you are incapable of understanding unless someone explains it to you

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

A word can be transformed into a coulour, light, a smell; it is the writer's task to use it in such a way that it serves, never fails, can never be ignored.

Love is every bit as violent and dangerous as murder.

But things worked out. Everything works out. Though sometimes they work out sideways.

I stood in the lee of an overhanging rock and thought of many things.

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

Today riches and honours have been lavished on me, but one gift has been lacking, the most important one of all, the only one that matters, the gift of youth.

And love was creation's source,creation's ruler; but all love's ways are strewn with blossoms and blood, blossoms and blood.

There is nothing like being left alone again, to walk peacefully with oneself in the woods. To boil one's coffee and fill one's pipe, and to think idly and slowly as one does it.

The whisper of the blood and the pleading of the bone marrow.

I have gone to the forest.

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 welcome to your intellectual pastimes and books and art and newspapers; welcome, too, to your bars and your whisky that only makes me ill. Here am I in the forest, quite content.

Heaven knows that there are plenty of opportunities in later life, too, for being carried away. What of it? We remain what we are and, no doubt, it is all very good for us!

There was a rock in front of my hut, a tall, gray rock. By its looks it seemed to be well-disposed toward me.

One must know and recognize not merely the direct but the secret power of the word.

Were I more conversant with literature and its great names, I could go on quoting them ad infinitum and acknowledge my debt for the merit you have been generous enough to find in my work

Small jerks began to appear in my legs, my walk became unsteady precisely because I wanted it to be smooth.

The long, long road over the moors and up into the forest - who trod it into being first of all? Man, a human being, the first that came here. There was no path before he came.

I have had much to learn from Sweden's poetry and, more especially, from her lyrics of the last generation.

What will I do when I can no longer dig?

When good befalls a man he calls it Providence, when evil fate.

Keep it, keep it!" I answered. "You are very welcome to it! It is only a couple of small things, doesn't amount to anything—about everything I own in the world.

And love became the world's origin and the world's ruler, yet littered its path is with flowers and blood, flowers and blood.

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

Young hearts have their unfathomable depths.

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