Iceland
And be humbled in Iceland,
And the spawn of the volcano,
Is thick and impatient,
Like the people around it,
– Craig Scanlon
From the night-bird's lay through the starry time,
In the groves of the soft Hesperian clime,
To the swan's wild note by the Iceland lakes,
When the dark fir-branch into verdure breaks
– Felicia Dorothea Hemans
“I’ve walked a lot in the mountains in Iceland. And as you come to a new valley, as you come to a new landscape, you have a certain view. If you stand still, the landscape doesn’t necessarily tell you how big it is. It doesn’t really tell you what you’re looking at. The moment you start to move the mountain starts to move.”
– Olafur Eliasson
“The problem with driving around Iceland is that you’re basically confronted by a new soul-enriching, breath-taking, life-affirming natural sight every five goddamn minutes. It’s totally exhausting.”
– Stephen Markley
“People never believe in volcanoes until the lava actually overtakes them”
– George Santayana