Famous Henrik Ibsen Quotations

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"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? I think we can agree it's the fools, no matter where you go in this world, it's the fools that form the overwhelming majority."
by Henrik Ibsen
"The majority is always wrong; the minority is rarely right."
by Henrik Ibsen
"It is inexcusable for scientists to torture animals; let them make their experiments on journalists and politicians."
by Henrik Ibsen
"A community is like a ship, everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm."
by Henrik Ibsen
"A man should never put on his best trousers when he goes out to battle for freedom and truth."
by Henrik Ibsen
"Castles in the air - they are so easy to take refuge in. And so easy to build, too."
by Henrik Ibsen
"Different people have different duties assigned to them by Nature Nature has given one the power or the desire to do this, and the other that. Each bird must sing with his own throat."
by Henrik Ibsen
"Never wear your best trousers when you go out to fight for freedom and truth."
by Henrik Ibsen
"One should never put on one's best trousers to go out to battle for freedom and truth."
by Henrik Ibsen
"Poetry is to hold judgment on your soul."
by Henrik Ibsen
"The great secret of power is never to will to do more than you can accomplish."
by Henrik Ibsen
"The strongest man in the world is he who stands alone."
by Henrik Ibsen
"What in fact have I achieved, however much it may seem Bits and pieces trivialities. But here they won't tolerate anything else, or anything more. If I wanted to take one step in advance of the current views and opinions of the day, that would put paid to any power I have. Do you know what we are those of us who count as pillars of society We are society's tools, neither more nor less."
by Henrik Ibsen
"What ought a man to be Well, my short answer is himself."
by Henrik Ibsen
"Castles in the air - -they are so easy to take refuge in. And so easy to build as well."
by Henrik Ibsen
"A forest bird never wants a cage."
by Henrik Ibsen
"You should never have your best trousers on when you go out to fight for freedom and truth."
by Henrik Ibsen
"What we have inherited from our fathers and mothers is not all that 'walks in us.' There are all sorts of dead ideas and lifeless old beliefs. They have no tangibility, but they haunt us all the same and we can not get rid of them. Whenever I take up a newspaper I seem to see Ghosts gliding between the lines. Ghosts must be all over the country, as thick as the sands of the sea."
by Henrik Ibsen
"On the contrary"
by Henrik Ibsen when his wife said he looked better
"I am sticking as closely to my subject as I can; for my subject is precisely this, that it is the masses, the majority"
by Henrik Ibsen
"The majority never has right on its side. Never, I say! That is one of these social lies against which an independent, intelligent men must wage war. Who is it that constitute the majority of the population in a country? Is it the clever folk, or the stupid? I don"
by Henrik Ibsen
"A minority may be right, and a majority is always wrong."
by Henrik Ibsen
"Your home is regarded as a model home, your life as a model life. But all this splendor, and you along with it... it's just as though it were built upon a shifting quagmire. A moment may come, a word can be spoken, and both you and all this splendor will collapse."
by Henrik Ibsen
"The spirit of truth and the spirit of freedom -- these are the pillars of society."
by Henrik Ibsen
"Ah, I fancy it is just the same with most of what you call your emancipation. You have read yourself into a number of new ideas and opinions. You have got a sort of smattering of recent discoveries in various fields -- discoveries that seem to overthrow certain principles which have hitherto been held impregnable and unassailable. But all this has only been a matter of intellect, Miss West -- superficial acquisition. It has not passed into your blood."
by Henrik Ibsen
"A thousand words will not leave so deep an impression as one deed."
by 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..."
by 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."
by Henrik Ibsen
"Our home has been nothing but a play-room. I've been your doll-wife here, just as at home I was Papa's doll-child. And the children have been ..."
by Henrik Ibsen
"You should never have your best trousers on when you turn out to fight for freedom and truth."
by Henrik Ibsen
"A community is like a ship; everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm."
by Henrik Ibsen


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