Henrik Ibsen > Quotes

“It is the very mark of the spirit of rebellion to crave for happiness in this life”
― Henrik Ibsen, Ghosts

“You see, the point is that the strongest man in the world is he who stands most alone.”
― Henrik Ibsen, An Enemy of the People

“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.”
― Henrik Ibsen

“You have never loved me. You have only thought it pleasant to be in love with me.”
― Henrik Ibsen, A Doll's House

“A thousand words leave not the same deep impression as does a single deed.”
― Henrik Ibsen

“To live is to war with trolls.”
― Henrik Ibsen

“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.”
― Henrik Ibsen, A Doll's House

“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?”
― Henrik Ibsen, An Enemy of the People

“I must make up my mind which is right – society or I.”
― Henrik Ibsen, A Doll's House

“You see, there are some people that one loves, and others that perhaps one would rather be with.”
― Henrik Ibsen, A Doll's House

“Helmer: I would gladly work night and day for you. Nora- bear sorrow and want for your sake. But no man would sacrifice his honor for the one he loves.
Nora: It is a thing hundreds of thousands of women have done.”
― Henrik Ibsen, A Doll's House

“The strongest men are the most alone.”
― Ibsen

“I believe that before all else I am a reasonable human being, just as you are--or, at all events, that I must try and become one.”
― Henrik Ibsen, The Doll's House: A Play

“But no man would sacrifice his honor for the one he loves."

"It is a thing hundreds of thousands of women have done.”
― Henrik Ibsen, A Doll's House

“What is the difference in being alone with another and being alone by one's self?”
― Henrik Ibsen

“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.”
― Henrik Ibsen, A Doll's House

“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.”
― Henrik Ibsen

“You should never wear your best trousers when you go out to fight for freedom and truth.”
― Henrik Ibsen, An Enemy of the People

“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.”
― Ibsen Henrik 1828-1906, Ghosts

“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.”
― Henrik Ibsen, A Doll's House

“A thousand words will not leave so deep an impression as one deed.”
― Henrik Ibsen

“Mrs LINDE: When you've sold yourself once for the sake of others, you don't do it second time.”
― Henrik Ibsen, A Doll's House

“Public opinion is an extremely mutable thing”
― Henrik Ibsen, An Enemy of the People

“Was the majority right when they stood by while Jesus was crucified? Was the majority right when they refused to believe that the earth moved around the sun and let Galileo be driven to his knees like a dog?

It takes fifty years for the majority to be right. The majority is never right until it does right.”
― Henrik Johan Ibsen

“To live is to war with trolls in heart and soul.
To write is to sit in judgement on oneself.”
― Henrik Johan Ibsen, Peer Gynt

“Rob the average man of his life-illusion, and you rob him of his happiness at the same stroke.”
― Henrik Ibsen, The Wild Duck

“The most dangerous enemy of the truth and freedom amongst us is the compact majority”
― Henrik Ibsen, An Enemy of the People

“Nora: It's true Torvald. When I lived at home with Papa, he used to tell me his opinion about everything, and so I had the same opinion. If I thought differently, I had to hide it from him, or he wouldn't have liked it. He called me his little doll, and he used to play with me just as I played with my dolls. Then I came to live in your house -

Helmer: That's no way to talk about our marriage!

Nora [undisturbed]: I mean when I passed out of Papa's hands into yours. You arranged everything to suit your own tastes, and so I came to have the same tastes as yours.. or I pretended to. I'm not quite sure which.. perhaps it was a bit of both -- sometimes one and sometimes the other. Now that I come to look at it, I've lived here like a pauper -- simply from hand to mouth. I've lived by performing tricks for you, Torvald. That was how you wanted it. You and Papa have committed a grievous sin against me: it's your fault that I've made nothing of my life.”
― Henrik Ibsen, A Doll's House

“With me you could have been another person.”
― Henrik Ibsen, A Doll's House

“Don't use that exotic word "ideals". We have a good enough native word: "lies".”
― Henrik Ibsen