Icelandic Quotes

“I was worst to the one I loved best.”
― Hannah Kent, Burial Rites

“Blíndur er bóklaus ma∂ur. Blind is a man without a book.”
― Hannah Kent, Burial Rites

“There is no more sagacious animal than the Icelandic horse. He is stopped by neither snow, nor storm, nor impassable roads, nor rocks, glaciers, or anything. He is courageous, sober, and surefooted. He never makes a false step, never shies. If there is a river or fjord to cross (and we shall meet with many) you will see him plunge in at once, just as if he were amphibious, and gain the opposite bank.”
― Jules Verne, Journey to the Center of the Earth

“We thought it was drops
of dew and kissed
cold tears from the crossgrass.”
― Jónas Hallgrímsson

“You must sit down to speak this language,
It is so heavy you can't be polite or chatter in it.
For once you have begun a sentence, the whole course of your life is laid out before you"
-quoted in "The Geography of Bliss”
― Bill Holm

“Immoral women do not exist", said the organist. "That this only a superstition. On the other hand there exist women who sleep thirty times with one man, and women who sleep once with thirty men.”
― Halldór Laxness, The Atom Station

“A track I’ve always liked by Mogwai goes on a loop while I pour a second glass of Reyka. This time it tastes of lava fields and thermal springs, aromatic alcohol evaporating stale thoughts, familiar and foreign. Something unnamed is melting, germinating, potentiating the currents of tomorrow across frozen, unpopulated dreamscapes.”
― Laurie Perez, The Look of Amie Martine

“Maeve was an Icelandic truck driver at heart, no weather stopped her”
― Ann Patchett, The Dutch House

“Risastór stjarna, miklu stærri en við getum ímyndað okkur, sprakk í þúsund, milljón mola. Rykið úr henni þeyttist á methraða út um allt og lét ekkert stoppa sig – svolítið eins og Íslendingar á útsölu!”
― Ævar Þór Benediktsson, Gestir utan úr geimnum

“...despite the fact that it's technically written in Old English rather than Old Icelandic, Icelanders would have an eaiser time learning to read Beowulf than would modern English speakers.”
― Gretchen McCulloch, Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language

“...despite the fact that it's technically written in Old English rather than Old Icelandic, Icelanders would have an easier time learning to read Beowulf than would modern English speakers.”
― Gretchen McCulloch

“Nell whirled in its threshold, pointing a finger at me. "Skuffuskald!"
"Gesundheit?" I offered back. Just to be sure, I reached up and touched my nose, to make sure it was still in the right place.”
― Alexandra Bracken, The Dreadful Tale of Prosper Redding

“The Bold and the Generous have the best lives”
― Icelandic Proverb