Children's Book Week will be here before you know it and I was thinking that some wonderful and whimsical Hans Christian Andersen quotes would be a great way to ring it in. After all, without the words of this wonderful author we wouldn't have the heartwarming and inspiring stories of The Ugly Duckling, The Emperor's New Clothes or The Little Mermaid (the original version, of course). So for all of you with children (and all of you with an inner child), here are 11 Hans Christian Andersen quotes to enjoy...

1. "Most of the people who will walk after me will be children, so make the beat keep time with short steps."

2. "Every man's life is a fairy tale written by God's fingers."

3. "Where words fail, music speaks."

4. "Nothing is too high for a man to reach, but he must climb with care and confidence."

5. "Being born in a duck yard does not matter, if only you are hatched from a swan's egg."

6. "It is the power of thought that gives man power over nature."

7. "Just living is not enough, said the Butterfly. One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower."

8. "The sayings live in books, and on the tongues of the people; they fly far about like a flock of birds, but still are as different from one another as the thrush is from the owl, as the wood-pigeon from the gull."

9. "Come, my good child," said the minister; "our Lord will forsake neither thy mother nor thee."

10. "He now felt glad at having suffered sorrow and trouble, because it enabled him to enjoy so much better all the pleasure and happiness around him; for the great swans swam round the newcomer, and stroked his neck with their beaks, as a welcome."

11. "And all good children to whom he related this story, took great heed of this naughty Cupid; but he made fools of them still, for he is astonishingly cunning. When the university students come from the lectures, he runs beside them in a black coat, and with a book under his arm. It is quite impossible for them to know him, and they walk along with him arm in arm, as if he, too, were a student like themselves; and then, unperceived, he thrusts an arrow to their bosom."

And there you have it - eleven fun, interesting and inspiring Hans Christian Andersen quotes. Very few authors are able to touch the lives of so many children in the way this great master of literature did. Let's remember him with these Hans Christian Andersen quotes as we celebrate Children's Book Week.

For more inspirational quotes, check out the popular funny quotes section at www.Famous-Quotes-And-Quotations.com, a website that specializes in 'Top 10' lists of quotations in dozens of categories.