Henrik Ibsen Quotations

A community is like a ship; everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm.

A thousand words will not leave so deep an impression as one deed.

Do you know what we are those of us who count as pillars of society? We are society's tools, neither more nor less.

A minority may be right, and a majority is always wrong.

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.

These heroes of finance are like beads on a string; when one slips off, all the rest follow.

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

The spirit of truth and the spirit of freedom - these are the pillars of society.

The spectacles of experience; through them you will see clearly a second time.

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

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

I'm afraid for all those who'll have the bread snatched from their mouths by these machines. What business has science and capitalism got, bringing all these new inventions into the works, before society has produced a generation educated up to using them!

Castles in the air - they are so easy to take refuge in. And so easy to build too.

Never wear your best trousers when you go out to fight for freedom and truth.

The majority is always wrong; the minority is rarely right.

The man whom God wills to slay in the struggle of life - he first individualizes.

The worst enemy of truth and freedom in our society is the compact majority.

Marriage! Nothing else demands so much of a man

The pillars of truth and the pillars of freedom - they are the pillars of society.

Do not use that foreign word 'ideals.' We have that excellent native word 'lies.'

Don't use that foreign word 'ideals.' We have that excellent native word 'lies.'

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.

What business has science and capitalism got, bringing all these new inventions into the works, before society has produced a generation educated up to using them!

One of the qualities of liberty is that, as long as it is being striven after, it goes on expanding. Therefore, the man who stands in the midst of the struggle and says, 'I have it,' merely shows by doing so that he has just lost it.

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.

Really to sin you have to be serious about it.

One should never put on one's best trousers to go out to battle for freedom and truth.

Rob the average man of his life-illusion and you rob him also of his happiness

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

But, merciful God! People don't do such things!

Deprive the average human being of his life-lie, and you rob him of his happiness

Some day, youth will come here and thunder on my door, and force its way in to me.

A woman cannot be herself in modern society, with laws made by men and with prosecutors and judges who assess female conduct from a male standpoint.

You should never have your best trousers on when you go out to fight for freedom and truth.

You should never have your best trousers on when you turn out to fight for freedom and truth.

You should never wear your best trousers when you go out to fight for freedom and truth

Always do that, wild duck. Stick at the bottom. Deep as they can get. . . . And so they never come up again.

A man should never put on his best trousers when he goes out to battle for freedom and truth

Emperor? You old fake! / You're no Emperor. You're just an onion. / Now then, little Peer, I'm going to peel you.

Sleep, O sleep, my dearest boy. / I will cradle you, I will guard you.

In that second it dawned on me that I had been living here for eight years with a strange man and had borne him three children.

It was love for me - her kind of love - that drove her into the mill-race.

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.

These heroes of finance are like beads on a string when one slips off, all the rest follow

As you can see, I'm a button-moulder. / You must go into my casting ladle.

They may soon expect the white horse at Rosmersholm now.

I can see him. With vine leaves in his hair.

I don't wish you anything but just what you are - my own sweet little song-bird.

To crave for happiness in this world is simply to be possessed by a spirit of revolt. What right have we to happiness?

The most dangerous enemy of the truth and freedom amongst us is the compact majority

It is the very mark of the spirit of rebellion to crave for happiness in this life

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.

The greatest victory is defeat.

What's a man's first duty? The answer is brief: To be himself.

A woman cannot be herself in the society of the present day, which is an exclusively masculine society, with laws framed by men and with a judicial system that judges feminine conduct from a masculine point of view.

NORA: I must stand on my own two feet if I'm to get to know myself and the world outside. That's why I can't stay here with you any longer.

I don't imagine you will dispute the fact that at present the stupid people are in an absolutely overwhelming majority all the world over.

...every man shares the responsibility and the guilt of the society to which he belongs.

The spirit of truth and the spirit of freedom-they are the pillars of society.

But a scientific man must live in a little bit of style.

When we dead awaken ... we see that we have never lived.

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

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.

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

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

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.

To live is to war with trolls.

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.

If only I could master that demon of procrastination that goes about like a roaring lion and devours all my good intentions, I should become the most punctual man in the world.

You have never loved me. You have only thought it pleasant to be in love with me.

You see, there are some people that one loves, and others that perhaps one would rather be with.

A forest bird never wants a cage.

I must make up my mind which is right – society or I.

The sea possesses a power over one's moods that has the effect of a will. The sea can hypnotize. Nature in general can do so.

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

Take the life-lie away from the average man and straight away you take away his happiness.

That is the accursed thing about small surroundings -- they make the soul small.

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

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

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

Each bird must sing with his own throat.

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?

The devil is compromise.

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.

It is not for a care-free existence I am fighting, but for the possibility of devoting myself to the task which I believe and know has been laid upon me by God -- the work which seems to me more important and needful in Norway than any other, that of arousing the nation and leading it to think great thoughts.

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

I'm inclined to think we are all ghosts-every one of us. It's not just what we inherit from our mothers and fathers that haunts us. Its all kinds of old defunct theories, all sorts of old defunct beliefs, and things like that.

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.

The majority never has right on its side. Never, I say! That is one of these social lies against which an independent, intelligent men must wage war. Who is it that constitute the majority of the population in a country? Is it the clever folk, or the stupid? I don't imagine you will dispute the fact that at present the stupid people are in an absolutely overwhelming majority all the world over.

It is no use lying to one's self.

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

There can be no freedom or beauty about a home life that depends on borrowing and debt.

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

So to conduct one's life as to realize oneself-this seems to me the highest attainment possible to a human being. It is the task of one and all of us, but most of us bungle it.

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

Marriage is something you have to give your whole mind to.

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

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.

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.

There is so much falsehood both at home and at school. At home one must not speak, and at school we have to stand and tell lies to the children.