Andersen's Fairy Tales Love Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Tale Title.Paragraph)

Quote #1

Cupid is a rascal! Don't ever have anything to do with him! Imagine, he once shot your poor old grandmother, right through the heart; it's so long ago that it no longer hurts, but she hasn't forgotten it. (The Naughty Boy.16)

Oh, that Cupid, always going around and shooting people with his arrows in order to make them fall in love. That doesn't make falling in love sound very appealing, does it? Maybe if you could choose whom you fall in love with, and make sure that they love you back, it wouldn't be so bad. But love doesn't work like that, at least not as far as we can tell.

Quote #2

Day by day the prince grew fonder and fonder of her; but he loved her as he would have loved a good child, and had no thought of making her his queen. (The Little Mermaid.85)

We like to call this getting friend-zoned! The tragedy here is that the little mermaid loves the prince with all her heart, but she can't express her love for him, since she gave up her voice in the bargain with the sea witch (we guess she never learned to write, since what could you write with under the sea?). Platonic love isn't a bad thing, but since her life's on the line, we can see why the little mermaid is pretty bummed about the whole thing.

Quote #3

Her delicate hands picked the horrible nettles, and it felt as if her hands were burning and big blisters rose on her arms and hands. But she did not mind the pain if she could save her brothers. (The Wild Swans.53)

Elisa will go to any lengths to save her brothers from the curse that turned them into swans, and that includes weaving nettles into shirts for them. If you've never accidentally run into some nettles, be thankful—those suckers sure sting! The fact that Elisa works with nettles day in and day out really says something about how much she loves her brothers.