Henrik Ibsen Quotes
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It is the very mark of the spirit of rebellion to crave for happiness in this life.
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Take the life-lie away from the average man and straight away you take away his happiness.
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Whenever I take up a newspaper, I seem to see Ghosts gliding between the lines. There must be Ghosts all the country over, as thick as the sand of the sea.... We are, one and all, so pitifully afraid of the light.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Friends are to be feared, not so much for what they make us do as what they keep us from doing.
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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.
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The majority never has right on its side.
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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.
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It's such sport with these heroes of finance: they are like beads on a string — when one slips off, all the rest follow.
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The great secret of power is never to will to do more than you can accomplish.
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I am sticking as closely to my subject as I can; for my subject is precisely this, that it is the masses, the majority.
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To see one's goal and to drive toward it, steeling one's heart, is most uplifting.
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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.
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To die in agony upon a cross Does not create a martyr; he must first Will his own execution.
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The man-at-arms is the only man.
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In great memories there lies the seed of growth.
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You have never loved me. You have only thought it pleasant to be in love with me.
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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.
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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.
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The man whom God wills to slay in the struggle of life - he first individualizes.
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Helmer: I would gladly work night and day for you. Nora- bear sorrow and want for your sake. But no man would sacrafice his honor for the one he loves. Nora: It is a thing hundreds of thousands of women have done.
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Writing has... been to me like a bath from which I have risen feeling cleaner, healthier, and freer.