Henrik Ibsen Quotes

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

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

This is life! It can harden and it can exalt!

When I was at home with papa, he told me his opinion about everything, and so I had the same opinions; and if I differed from him I concealed the fact, because he would not have liked it. He called me his doll-child, and he played with me just as I used to play with my dolls.

Ghosts! […] I almost think we are all of us ghosts. It is not only what we have inherited from our father and mother that ‘walks’ in us. It is 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 cannot shake them off. 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 sands of the sea. And then we are, one and all, so pitifully afraid of the light.

Yes you may depend upon it he has the ability! He is the younger generation that stands ready to knock at my door - to make an end of Halvard Solness.

The strongest man is the one who stands most alone.

NORA: Yes; it is just so, Torvald. While I was still at home with father, he used to tell me all his views, and so of course I held the same views; if at any time I had a different view I concealed it, because he would not have liked people with opinions of their own. He used to call me his little doll, and play with me, as I in my turn used to play with my dolls. Then I came to live in your house.

You arranged everything according to your own taste, and so I got the same tastes as you - or else I pretended to. I am really not quite sure which - I think sometimes the one and sometimes the other.

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

While I think of it, Mr. Werle, junior — don't use that foreign word: ideals. We have the excellent native word: lies.

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

People so easily forget their past selves.

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

We will talk of this again, when the grass has first withered on her grave. Then you'll hear him spouting about "the child too early torn from her father's heart;" then you'll see him steep himself in a syrup of sentiment and self-admiration and self-pity. Just you wait!

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

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

Different people have different duties assigned to 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 strongest men are the most alone.

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.

Cage an eagle and it will bite at the wires, be they ofiron or of gold.

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.

Laughter's all the damned thing's fit for.

To seek one's goals and to drive toward it steeling one's heart is most uplifting!

You see, the point is that the strongest man in the world is he who stands most alone.

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.

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.

Now I am steel-set: I follow the call to the clear radiance and glow of the heights.

I am afraid, Torvald, I do not exactly know what religion is. ... When I am away from all this, and am alone, I will look into that matter too. I will see if what the clergyman said is true, or at all events if it is true for me.

She was an extraordinary person too! Would you believe it, she cut her hair short, and used to go about in men’s boots in bad weather

And what if I did run my ship aground oh still it was splendid to sail it!

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

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

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

The right? Ah, what does it help to be in the right if you don't have any power?

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.

Torvald: I would gladly work night and day for you, Nora--bear sorrow and want for your sake. But no man would sacrifice his honour for the one he loves. Nora: But hundreds of thousands of women have done!

NORA: No; only merry. And you were always so friendly and kind to me. But our house has been nothing but a nursery. Here I have been your doll-wife, just as at home I used to be papa's doll-child. And my children were, in their turn, my dolls. I was exceedingly delighted when you played with me, just as children were whenever I played with them. That has been our marriage, Torvald.

To live is - to war with trolls In the holds of the heart and mind

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

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.

To live is to war with trolls.

A minority may be right a majority is always wrong.

Most people are ennobled by the actual presence of death. But how long do you suppose this nobility will last in him?