Astrid Lindgren Quotes

• Everything great that ever happened in this world happened first in somebody’s imagination.

  Astrid Lindgren

  Imagination, World, Firsts

  73 Copy quote

• Don't let them get you down. Be cheeky. And wild. And wonderful.

  Astrid Lindgren

  Wonderful, Cheeky

  77 Copy quote

• What the world of tomorrow will be like is greatly dependent on the power of imagination in those who are learning to read today.

  Astrid Lindgren

  Imagination, World, Today

  66 Copy quote

• Give the children love, more love and still more love – and the common sense will come by itself.

  Astrid Lindgren

  Children, Giving, Common Sense

  "The 10 best Pippi Longstocking quotes" by Laura Tscherry, www.theguardian.com. June 2, 2015.

  85 Copy quote

• There is very little you can beat into a child, but no limit to what you can hug out of it.

  Astrid Lindgren

  Children, Discipline, Hug

  41 Copy quote

• A childhood without books – that would be no childhood. That would be like being shut out from the enchanted place where you can go and find the rarest kind of joy.

  Astrid Lindgren

  Children, Book, Healing

  30 Copy quote

• If I have brightened up one single sad childhood, then I have at least accomplished something in my life.

  Astrid Lindgren

  Children, Sadness, Childhood

  Astrid Lindgren's acceptance speech for The Right Livelihood Award, www.rightlivelihoodaward.org. December 31, 1994.

  25 Copy quote

• I don't mind dying, I'll gladly do that, but not right now, I need to clean the house first.

  Astrid Lindgren

  House, Mind, Dying

  27 Copy quote

• I don't want to write for adults. I want to write for readers who can perform miracles. Only children perform miracles when they read.

  Astrid Lindgren

  Children, Writing, Miracle

  25 Copy quote

• And so I write the way I myself would like the book to be – if I were a child. I write for the child within me.

  Astrid Lindgren

  Children, Book, Writing

  22 Copy quote

• If I have managed to brighten up even one gloomy childhood – then I’m satisfied.

  Astrid Lindgren

  Childhood, Gloomy, Satisfied

  10 Copy quote

• I have noticed several times that people don't think I know how to behave even when I'm trying as hard as I can.

  Astrid Lindgren

  Thinking, People, Trying

  10 Copy quote

• But still, if it's true, how can it be a lie?

  Astrid Lindgren

  Lying, Stills, Ifs

  14 Copy quote

• You understand Teacher, don't you, that when you have a mother who's an angel and a father who is a cannibal king, and when you have sailed on the ocean all your whole life, then you don't know just how to behave in school with all the apples and ibexes.

  Astrid Lindgren

  Mother, Teacher, Kings

  Astrid Lindgren (1998). “Pippi Goes to School”

  22 Copy quote

• What should a good children’s book be like? If you ask me, I can tell you after thinking long and hard: It must be good.

  Astrid Lindgren

  Children, Book, Thinking

  15 Copy quote

• As the children were sitting there eating pears, a girl came walking along the road from town. When she saw the children she stopped and asked, "Have you seen my papa go by?" "M-m-m," said Pippi. "How did he look? Did he have blue eyes?" "Yes," said the girl. "Medium large, not too tall and not too short?" "Yes," said the girl. "Black hat and black shoes?" "Yes, exactly," said the girl eagerly. "No, that one we haven't seen," said Pippi decidedly.

  Astrid Lindgren

  Girl, Children, Eye

  10 Copy quote

• I have been very interested in labor movement. If I could have wished another life, I would have loved to be a pioneer woman in the beginning of labor movement.

  Astrid Lindgren

  Labour Movement, Pioneers, Another Life

  7 Copy quote

• I have never experienced being madly in love the way most people seem to have been, although it is not something I would miss. Instead I have had an enormous ability to love my children and my grandchildren and my great grandchildren.

  Astrid Lindgren

  Children, People, Missing

  78 Copy quote

• But Nightshirts aren't dangerous," Pippi assured her. "They don't bite anybody except in self defense.

  Astrid Lindgren

  Self, Defense, Dangerous

  11 Copy quote

• Then she yelled after the girl, 'No, we haven't seen any bald 'uns all days. But yesterday seventeen of 'em went by. Arm in arm!

  Astrid Lindgren

  Girl, Yesterday, Ems

  Astrid Lindgren (2015). “Pippi Longstocking”, p.34, Oxford University Press - Children

  16 Copy quote

• The girl hurried away, but then Pippi shouted, "Did he have big ears that reached way down to his shoulders?" "No," said the girl and turned and came running back in amazement. "You don't mean to say that you have seen a man walk by with such big ears?" "I have never seen anyone who walks with his ears," said Pippi. "All the people I know walk with their feet.

  Astrid Lindgren

  Girl, Running, Mean

  5 Copy quote

• No Fridolf, bother all this learning. I can't study anymore because I must climb the mast to see what kind of weather we're going to have tomorrow.

  Astrid Lindgren

  Weather, Tomorrow, Study

  9 Copy quote

• At least, not in this country,' she added after a moment's thought. 'In China it's a little different. Once I saw a Chinaman in Shanghai. His ears were so big he could use them for a raincoat. When it rained, he just crept in under his ears and was warm and snug as could be. Not that the ears had such a rattling good time of it, you understand. If it was specially bad weather, he'd invite friends and acquaintances to pitch camp under his ears too. There they sat, singing their sorrowful songs while it poured down outside.

  Astrid Lindgren

  Country, Song, Weather

  Astrid Lindgren (2015). “Pippi Longstocking”, p.33, Oxford University Press - Children

  6 Copy quote

• Well, well, so you aren't going to be a maidservant this time?" said Pippi, stroking his back. "Oh, that was a lie, that's true," she continued. "But still, if it's true, how can it be a lie?" she argued. "You wait and see, it's going to turn out he was a maidservant in Arabie after all, and if that's the case, I know who's making the meatballs at our house hereafter!

  Astrid Lindgren

  Lying, House, Waiting

  7 Copy quote

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