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

On the whole, the world was friendly. It chiefly depended on whether one were good or not.

I was at home then in the world of figures, but not in that of values.

That a literature in our time is living is shown in that way that it debates problems.

The Danish glee: the national version of cheerfulness.

Any feeling that I was enriching my mind from those surrounding me was unfortunately rare with me.

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.