Henrik Ibsen

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

— Henrik Ibsen

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

— Henrik Ibsen

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

— Henrik Ibsen

There are three Empires. First there is the Empire which was founded on the tree of knowledge. Then there is the Empire founded on the tree of the Cross. The third is still a secret Empire which will be founded on the tree of knowledge and the tree of the Cross — brought together.

— Henrik Ibsen

That power which circumstances placed in my hands, and which is an emanation of divinity, I am conscious of having used to the best of my skill. I have never wittingly wronged any one. For this campaign there were good and sufficient reasons; and if some should think that I have not fulfilled all expectations, they ought in justice to reflect that there is a mysterious power without us, which in a great measure governs the issue of human undertakings.

— Henrik Ibsen

Erring soul of man — if thou wast indeed forced to err, it shall surely be accounted to thee for good on that great day when the Mighty One shall descend in the clouds to judge the living dead and the dead who are yet alive!

— Henrik Ibsen

The great secret of power is never to will to do more than you can accomplish. The great secret of action and victory is to be capable of living your life without ideals. Such is the sum of the whole world's wisdom.

— Henrik Ibsen

I hold that man is in the right who is most closely in league with the future.

— Henrik Ibsen

The great task of our time is to blow up all existing institutions — to destroy.

— Henrik Ibsen

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

— Henrik Ibsen

I thank God that in the bath of Pain A noble pair, astride on Pegasus!

— Henrik Ibsen

I feel myself like God's lost prodigal; A song of glory to triumphant love!

— Henrik Ibsen

Tho' Doubt's beleaguering forces hem us in, The cause of Love shall win —

— Henrik Ibsen

Yes, Love shall win!

— Henrik Ibsen

An unromantic poem I mean to make Of one who only lives for duty's sake.

— Henrik Ibsen

I go to scale the Future's possibilities! Farewell! God bless thee, bride of my life's dawn, Where'er I be, to nobler deed thou'lt wake me.

— Henrik Ibsen

Really to sin you have to be serious about it.

— Henrik Ibsen

I'm afraid for all those who'll have the bread snatched from their mouths by these machines. You are very fond, sir, of talking about the consideration we owe to the community; it seems to me, however, that the community has its duties too. 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!

— Henrik Ibsen

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.

— Henrik Ibsen

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

— Henrik Ibsen

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

— Henrik Ibsen

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

— Henrik Ibsen

Nora.Look here, Doctor Rank - you know you want to live.

— Henrik Ibsen

Rank.Certainly. However wretched I may feel, I want to prolong the agony as long as possible."

— Henrik Ibsen

I don't know whether you find also in your part of the world that there are certain people who go zealously snuffing about to smell out moral corruption, and, as soon as they have found some, put the person concerned into some lucrative position where they can keep their eye on him. Healthy natures are left out in the cold.

— Henrik Ibsen

What's to become of the morally sound? Left out in the cold, I suppose. We must heal the sick.

— Henrik Ibsen

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

— Henrik Ibsen

Many a man can save himself if he admits he's done wrong and takes his punishment.

— Henrik Ibsen

You don't get nothing for nothing in this life.

— Henrik Ibsen

There is a big black hat and it makes you invisible. Have you heard of that hat? You put it on and then no one can see you.

— Henrik Ibsen

The black, cold, icy water. Down and down, without end — if it would only end.

— Henrik Ibsen

But our home's been nothing but a playpen. I've been your doll-wife here, just as at home I was Papa's doll-child. And in turn the children have been my dolls. I thought it fun when you played with me, just as they thought it fun when I played with them. That's been our marriage, Torvald.

— Henrik Ibsen

If I'm ever to reach any understanding of myself and the things around me, I must learn to stand alone. That's why I can't stay here with you any longer.

— Henrik Ibsen

I have other duties equally sacred … Duties to myself.

— Henrik Ibsen

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

— Henrik Ibsen

Helmer: First and foremost, you are a wife and mother.Nora: That I don't believe any more. I believe that first and foremost I am an individual, just as you are.

— Henrik Ibsen

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

— Henrik Ibsen

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

— Henrik Ibsen

There is one thing I esteem higher than that; and that is for a man to be self-reliant and sure of himself.

— Henrik Ibsen

I have already told you that what I want to speak about is the great discovery I have made lately - the discovery that all the sources of our moral life are poisoned and that the whole fabric of our civic community is founded on the pestiferous soil of falsehood.

— Henrik Ibsen

The common people are nothing more than the raw material of which a People is made.

— Henrik Ibsen

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

— Henrik Ibsen

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

— Henrik Ibsen

Always do that, wild ducks do. They shoot to the bottom as deep as they can get, sir — and bite themselves fast in the tangle and seaweed — and all the devil's own mess that grows down there. And they never come up again.

— Henrik Ibsen

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.

— Henrik Ibsen

Forget that foreign word "ideals." We have that good old native word: "lies."

— Henrik Ibsen

Oh courage...oh yes! If only one had that...Then life might be livable, in spite of everything.

— Henrik Ibsen

Back he'll come...With vine leaves in his hair. Flushed and confident.

— Henrik Ibsen

Mrs. Elvsted: You have some hidden motive in this, Hedda!Hedda: Do you think it's worth the trouble? Oh, if only you could understand how poor I am. And fate has made you so rich!

— Henrik Ibsen

Everything I touch seems destined to turn into something mean and farcical.

— Henrik Ibsen

The younger generation will come knocking at my door.

— Henrik Ibsen

A forest bird never wants a cage.

— Henrik Ibsen

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

— Henrik Ibsen

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.

— Henrik Ibsen

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

— Henrik Ibsen

A thousand words leave not the same deep impression as does a single deed.

— Henrik Ibsen

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

— Henrik Ibsen

Marriage! Nothing else demands so much of a man.

— Henrik Ibsen

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

— Henrik Ibsen