72 quotes
To live is to battle the demons in the heart as well as the brain. To write is to preside at judgement day over one's self.
The majority has the might — more's the pity — but it hasn't right. I am right — I and one or two other individuals like me. The minority is always right.
An Enemy of the People (1882)
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.
A Doll's House (1879)
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.
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.
A Doll's House (1879)
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.
A Doll's House (1879)
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.
The Pillars of Society (1877)
A forest bird never wants a cage.
The Master Builder (1892)
A political party—it’s like a sausage grinder; it grinds all the heads up together into one mash, and then it turns them out, link by link, into fatheads and meatheads!
Dr. Stockmann in An Enemy of the People (1882)
How much are we really in duty bound to pin our faith to ? Who will guarantee me that on Jupiter two and two do not make five?
Back he'll come...With vine leaves in his hair. Flushed and confident.
Hedda Gabler (1890)
Luftslotte,—de er så nemme at ty ind i, de. Og nemme at bygge også.
The Master Builder (1892)
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!
What's to become of the morally sound? Left out in the cold, I suppose. We must heal the sick.
A Doll's House (1879)
He who possesses liberty otherwise than as an aspiration possesses it soulless, dead. One of the qualities of liberty is that, as long as it is being striven after, it goes on expanding.
An unromantic poem I mean to make
Of one who only lives for duty's sake.
Love's Comedy (1862)
Now this very contentedness in the possession of a dead liberty is characteristic of the so-called State, and, as I have said, it is not a good characteristic.
At leve er — krig med trolde
i hjertets og hjernens hvælv.
At digte, — det er at holde
dommedag over sig selv.
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.
The Wild Duck (1884)
I've had the best possible chance of learning that what the working-classes really need is to be allowed some part in the direction of public affairs, Doctor—to develop their abilities, their understanding and their self-respect.