It is no use lying to one's self.

If I cannot be myself in what I write, then the whole is nothing but lies and humbug.

Our whole being is nothing but a fight against the dark forces within ourselves.

To live is to war with trolls.

It's not only what we have inherited from our father and mother that walks in us. It's all sorts of dead ideas, and lifeless old beliefs, and so forth. They have no vitality, but they cling to us all the same, and we can't get rid of them.

I believe that before anything else I'm a human being -- just as much as you are... or at any rate I shall try to become one. I know quite well that most people would agree with you, Torvald, and that you have warrant for it in books; but I can't be satisfied any longer with what most people say, and with what's in books. I must think things out for myself and try to understand them.

Each bird must sing with his own throat.