Henrik Ibsen Quotes

The devil is compromise.

What ought a man be? Well, my short answer is 'himself'.

It's such sport with these heroes of finance: they are like beads on a string — when one slips off, all the rest follow.

To live is to war with trolls in heart and woul. To write is to sit in judgement on oneself.

Oh, law and order! I often think it is that that is at the bottom of all the misery in the world.

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

The old terms must be invented with new meaning and given new explanations. Liberty, equality, and fraternity are no longer what they were in the days of the late-lamented guillotine. This is what the politicians will not understand; and that is why I hate them. They want only their own special revolutions- external revolutions, political revolutions, etc. But that is only dabbling. What is really needed is a revolution of the human spirit.

Your home is regarded as a model home, your life as a model life. But all this splendor, and you along with it... it's just as though it were built upon a shifting quagmire. A moment may come, a word can be spoken, and both you and all this splendor will collapse.

The great secret of power is never to will to do more than you can accomplish.

What is the difference in being alone with another and being alone by one's self?

In your power, all the same. Subject to your will and your demands. No longer free! No! That's a thought I'll never endure! Never.

Look into any man's heart you please, and you will always find, in every one, at least one black spot which he has to keep concealed.

It's a liberation to know that an act of spontaneous courage is yet possible in this world. An act that has something of unconditional beauty.

Everything that I have written is closely related to something that I have lived through.

Home life ceases to be free and beautiful as soon as it is founded on borrowing and debt.

The greatest victory is defeat.

The State is the curse of the individual... The State must go! That will be a revolution which will find me on its side. Undermine the idea of the State, set up in its place spontaneous action, and the idea that spiritual relationship is the only thing that makes for unity, and you will start the elements of a liberty which will be something worth possessing.

Different people have different duties assigned them by Nature; Nature has given one the power or the desire to do this, the other that. Each bird must sing with his own throat.

HELMER; But this is disgraceful. Is this the way you neglect your most sacred duties? NORA: What do you consider is my most sacred duty? HELMER: Do I have to tell you that? Isn't it your duty to your husband and children? NORA:I have another duty, just as sacred. HELMER: You can't have. What duty do you mean? NORA: My duty to myself.

It is inexcusable for scientists to torture animals; let them make their experiments on journalists and politicians.

Each bird must sing with his own throat.

Bigger things than the State will fall, all religion will fall.

Ive had the best possible chance of learning that what the working-classes really need is to be allowed some part in the direction of public affairs, Doctorto develop their abilities, their understanding and their self-respect.

Writing has... been to me like a bath from which I have risen feeling cleaner, healthier, and freer.

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.

Happiness is above all things the calm, glad certainty of innocence.

To live is to war with trolls.

I believe that, before all else, I'm a human being, no less than you.

Money brings you food, but not appetite; medicine, but not health; acquaintances, but not friends.

A marriage based on full confidence, based on complete and unqualified frankness on both sides; they are not keeping anything back; there's no deception underneath it all. If I might so put it, it's an agreement for the mutual forgiveness of sin.

The strongest man in the world is he who stands most alone.

Almost everyone who has gone to the bad early in life has had a deceitful mother.

I am in revolt against the age-old lie that the majority is always right.

The majority is never right. Never, I tell you! That's one of these lies in society that no free and intelligent man can help rebelling against. Who are the people that make up the biggest proportion of the population -- the intelligent ones or the fools?

Before I write down one word, I have to have the character in my mind through and through. I must penetrate into the last wrinkle of his soul.

The strong must learn to be lonely.

It was then that I began to look into the seams of your doctrine. I wanted only to pick at a single knot; but when I had got that undone, the whole thing raveled out. And then I understood that it was all machine-sewn.

People who don't know how to keep themselves healthy ought to have the decency to get themselves buried, and not waste time about it.

Poetry is to hold judgment on your soul.

It is not by spectacular achievements that man can be transformed, but by will.

Oh, yes--you can shout me down, I know! But you cannot answer me. The majority has might on its side--unfortunately; but right it has not.

Happiness is worth a daring deed; we are both free if we but will it, and then the game is won.

Money may be the husk of many things but not the kernel. It brings you food, but not appetite; medicine, but not health; acquaintance, but not friends; servants, but not loyalty; days of joy, but not peace or happiness.

Ah, I fancy it is just the same with most of what you call your emancipation. You have read yourself into a number of new ideas and opinions. You have got a sort of smattering of recent discoveries in various fields - discoveries that seem to overthrow certain principles which have hitherto been held impregnable and unassailable. But all this has only been a matter of intellect, Miss West - superficial acquisition. It has not passed into your blood.

The strongest men are the most alone.

I'm plotting revolution against this lie that the majority has a monopoly of the truth. What are these truths that always bring the majority rallying round? Truths so elderly they are practically senile. And when a truth is as old as that, gentlemen, you can hardly tell it from a lie.

Public opinion is an extremely mutable thing

If you doubt yourself, then indeed you stand on shaky ground.