My life is a lovely story, happy and full of incident.
Where these words come from
- 95% sureThese words were traced back to where they first appeared. That source is listed below.
- The True Story of My Life (autobiography, tr. Mary Howitt, 1847; Gutenberg #7007) — the book's famous opening line.
- The True Story of My Life
- 1847 · the opening sentence of Andersen's autobiography
More from Hans Christian Andersen
See allWhere words fail, sounds can often speak.
Hans Christian AndersenTo be born in a duck's nest, in a farmyard, is of no consequence to a bird, if it is hatched from a swan's egg.Hans Christian AndersenTo travel is to live.Hans Christian AndersenThe sun made the leaves transparent—there was a fragrance, a freshness—the birds sang. I was overcome by it.Hans Christian AndersenThat which is bitter passes away, and the whole world appears in sunlight.Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian AndersenTo be born in a duck's nest, in a farmyard, is of no consequence to a bird, if it is hatched from a swan's egg.Hans Christian AndersenTo travel is to live.Hans Christian AndersenThe sun made the leaves transparent—there was a fragrance, a freshness—the birds sang. I was overcome by it.Hans Christian AndersenThat which is bitter passes away, and the whole world appears in sunlight.Hans Christian AndersenMore on stories
A single conversation with a wise man is worth a month's study of books.Chinese proverbDo not be guilty of possessing a library of learned books while lacking learning yourself.
ErasmusFiction is Truth's elder sister.
Rudyard KiplingReading is to the mind, what exercise is to the body.
Joseph AddisonReading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.
Francis BaconFiction is to the grown man what play is to the child; it is there that he changes the atmosphere and tenor of his life.
Robert Louis Stevenson
ErasmusFiction is Truth's elder sister.Rudyard KiplingReading is to the mind, what exercise is to the body.Joseph AddisonReading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.Francis BaconFiction is to the grown man what play is to the child; it is there that he changes the atmosphere and tenor of his life.Robert Louis Stevenson