Hans: [having just learned that Doro is married to Niels, who has just slapped her after an argument] How could you do it? How could a girl like you marry a man like that? How can I help you?

- Danny Kaye (as Hans Christian Andersen) in Hans Christian Andersen (1952)

Hans: Did you ever hear the story of the old woman who shook her head at the family so much that one night it fell off? Right on the dinner table.

- Danny Kaye (as Hans Christian Andersen) in Hans Christian Andersen (1952)

Hans: No one's ever really alone.

- Danny Kaye (as Hans Christian Andersen) in Hans Christian Andersen (1952)

Hans: That's the nice thing about the world, my friend: People.

- Danny Kaye (as Hans Christian Andersen) in Hans Christian Andersen (1952)

Hans: You know I like to think that shoes have a mind of their own. The ones that squeak don't want to leave the shop, and the ones that don't fit don't like the person that's wearing them.

- Danny Kaye (as Hans Christian Andersen) in Hans Christian Andersen (1952)

Hans: You know, I never saw such a worrier as you, Peter. You want to worry? I'll give you something to worry about. Two years ago I took you out of that orphanage and promised them I'd make you into a good cobbler. Two whole years! Look at that shoe. Glue's all smeared, the nails go in crooked. Two years an apprentice and still the nails go in crooked.
Peter: I'm not as bad as all that, am I? You're not going to send me back, are you?
Hans: Ah! A new worry appears in the sky.

- Danny Kaye (as Hans Christian Andersen) in Hans Christian Andersen (1952)

Hans: You'd be surprised how many kings are only a queen with a mustache.

- Danny Kaye (as Hans Christian Andersen) in Hans Christian Andersen (1952)

Niels: You dance the waltz like an elephant in a snowdrift! No, like an elephant that's fallen and trying to get up!

- Farley Granger (as Niels) in Hans Christian Andersen (1952)

[working on a beautiful ballerina's shoes]
Hans: I almost wish she'd asked me for something really impossible.

- Danny Kaye (as Hans Christian Andersen) in Hans Christian Andersen (1952)