Henrik Ibsen Quotes

Dr. Stockmann, Act V
Robert Farquharson translation
An Enemy of the People (1882)

Hedda, Act IV
Hedda Gabler (1890)

Lona, Act IV
The Pillars of Society (1877)

Aune, Act II
The Pillars of Society (1877)

Hovstad, Act II
An Enemy of the People (1882)

Dr. Stockmann, Act IV
An Enemy of the People (1882)

Act II
Hedda Gabler (1890)

Hedda, Act II
Hedda Gabler (1890)

Falk, in a statement rich with ironies.
Love's Comedy (1862)
Context: 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.

Falk, Act III
Love's Comedy (1862)
Context: I feel myself like God's lost prodigal;
I left Him for the world's delusive charms.
With mild reproof He wooed me to his arms;
And when I come, He lights the vaulted hall,
Prepares a banquet for the son restored,
And makes His noblest creature my reward.
From this time forth I'll never leave that Light, —
But stand its armed defender in the fight;
Nothing shall part us, and our life shall prove
A song of glory to triumphant love!

Crowd, responding to Falk, in Act III
Love's Comedy (1862)

Falk, Act III
Love's Comedy (1862)
Context: I thank God that in the bath of Pain
He purged my love. What strong compulsion drew
Me on I knew not, till I saw in you
The treasure I had blindly sought in vain.
I praise Him, who our love has lifted thus
To noble rank by sorrow, — licensed us
To a triumphal progress, bade us sweep
Thro' fen and forest to our castle-keep,
A noble pair, astride on Pegasus!

Falk, Act III
Love's Comedy (1862)

Letter to Georg Brandes (17 February 1871), as translated in Henrik Ibsen : Björnstjerne Björnson. Critical Studies (1899) by Georg Morris Cohen Brandes
Variant translation: The quality of liberty is that, as long as it is being striven after, it goes on expanding. Therefore, the man who stands still in the midst of the struggle and says: "I have it," merely shows by so doing that he has lost it. Now this very contentedness in the possession of a dead liberty is a characteristic of the so-called state; and it is worthless.
As translated in Ibsen : The Man, His Art & His Significance (1907) by Haldane Macfall, p. 238
Variant translation: Neither moral concepts nor art forms can expect to live forever. How much are we obliged to hold on to? Who can guarantee that 2 plus 2 don't add up to 5 on Jupiter?
Context: 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. Therefore, the man who stands still in the midst of the struggle and says, "I have it," merely shows by so doing that he has just lost it. 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. No doubt the franchise, self-taxation, etc., are benefits — but to whom? To the citizen, not to the individual. Now, reason does not imperatively demand that the individual should be a citizen. Far from it. The State is the curse of the individual. With what is Prussia's political strength bought? With the absorption of the individual in the political and geographical idea. The waiter is the best soldier. And on the other hand, take the Jewish people, the aristocracy of the human race — how is it they have kept their place apart, their poetical halo, amid surroundings of coarse cruelty? By having no State to burden them. Had they remained in Palestine, they would long ago have lost their individuality in the process of their State's construction, like all other nations. Away with the State! I will take part in that revolution. Undermine the whole conception of a State, declare free choice and spiritual kinship to be the only all-important conditions of any union, and you will have the commencement of a liberty that is worth something. Changes in forms of government are pettifogging affairs — a degree less or a degree more, mere foolishness. The State has its root in time, and will ripe and rot in time. Greater things than it will fall — religion, for example. Neither moral conceptions nor art-forms have an eternity before them. 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?

Letter to Georg Brandes (17 February 1871), as translated in Henrik Ibsen : Björnstjerne Björnson. Critical Studies (1899) by Georg Morris Cohen Brandes
Variant translation: The quality of liberty is that, as long as it is being striven after, it goes on expanding. Therefore, the man who stands still in the midst of the struggle and says: "I have it," merely shows by so doing that he has lost it. Now this very contentedness in the possession of a dead liberty is a characteristic of the so-called state; and it is worthless.
As translated in Ibsen : The Man, His Art & His Significance (1907) by Haldane Macfall, p. 238
Variant translation: Neither moral concepts nor art forms can expect to live forever. How much are we obliged to hold on to? Who can guarantee that 2 plus 2 don't add up to 5 on Jupiter?
Context: 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. Therefore, the man who stands still in the midst of the struggle and says, "I have it," merely shows by so doing that he has just lost it. 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. No doubt the franchise, self-taxation, etc., are benefits — but to whom? To the citizen, not to the individual. Now, reason does not imperatively demand that the individual should be a citizen. Far from it. The State is the curse of the individual. With what is Prussia's political strength bought? With the absorption of the individual in the political and geographical idea. The waiter is the best soldier. And on the other hand, take the Jewish people, the aristocracy of the human race — how is it they have kept their place apart, their poetical halo, amid surroundings of coarse cruelty? By having no State to burden them. Had they remained in Palestine, they would long ago have lost their individuality in the process of their State's construction, like all other nations. Away with the State! I will take part in that revolution. Undermine the whole conception of a State, declare free choice and spiritual kinship to be the only all-important conditions of any union, and you will have the commencement of a liberty that is worth something. Changes in forms of government are pettifogging affairs — a degree less or a degree more, mere foolishness. The State has its root in time, and will ripe and rot in time. Greater things than it will fall — religion, for example. Neither moral conceptions nor art-forms have an eternity before them. 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?

Nora Helmer, Act III
A Doll's House (1879)
Context: 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.

At leve er — krig med trolde<br>i hjertets og hjernens hvælv.<br>At digte, — det er at holde<br>dommedag over sig selv. <br class="br">Et vers (A Verse), inscribed on the volume Poems (1877) <br class="br">Ibsen may have written this originally in German http://www.ibsen.net/index.gan?id=110602&amp;subid=0 as a dedication to a female reader. It was published in German in Deutsche Rundschau in November 1886:<br>Leben, das heisst bekriegen<br>In Herz und Hirn die Gewalten;<br>Und dichten; über sich selber<br>Den Gerichtstag halten.

Letter to Georg Brandes (17 February 1871), as translated in Henrik Ibsen : Björnstjerne Björnson. Critical Studies (1899) by Georg Morris Cohen Brandes
Variant translation: The quality of liberty is that, as long as it is being striven after, it goes on expanding. Therefore, the man who stands still in the midst of the struggle and says: "I have it," merely shows by so doing that he has lost it. Now this very contentedness in the possession of a dead liberty is a characteristic of the so-called state; and it is worthless.
As translated in Ibsen : The Man, His Art & His Significance (1907) by Haldane Macfall, p. 238
Variant translation: Neither moral concepts nor art forms can expect to live forever. How much are we obliged to hold on to? Who can guarantee that 2 plus 2 don't add up to 5 on Jupiter?
Context: 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. Therefore, the man who stands still in the midst of the struggle and says, "I have it," merely shows by so doing that he has just lost it. 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. No doubt the franchise, self-taxation, etc., are benefits — but to whom? To the citizen, not to the individual. Now, reason does not imperatively demand that the individual should be a citizen. Far from it. The State is the curse of the individual. With what is Prussia's political strength bought? With the absorption of the individual in the political and geographical idea. The waiter is the best soldier. And on the other hand, take the Jewish people, the aristocracy of the human race — how is it they have kept their place apart, their poetical halo, amid surroundings of coarse cruelty? By having no State to burden them. Had they remained in Palestine, they would long ago have lost their individuality in the process of their State's construction, like all other nations. Away with the State! I will take part in that revolution. Undermine the whole conception of a State, declare free choice and spiritual kinship to be the only all-important conditions of any union, and you will have the commencement of a liberty that is worth something. Changes in forms of government are pettifogging affairs — a degree less or a degree more, mere foolishness. The State has its root in time, and will ripe and rot in time. Greater things than it will fall — religion, for example. Neither moral conceptions nor art-forms have an eternity before them. 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?

Mrs. Alving, Act II
Ghosts (1881)
Context: I am half inclined to think we are all ghosts, Mr. Manders. It is not only what we have inherited from our fathers and mothers that exists again in us, but all sorts of old dead ideas and all kinds of old dead beliefs and things of that kind. They are not actually alive in us; but there they are dormant, all the same, and we can never be rid of them. Whenever I take up a newspaper and read it, I fancy I see ghosts creeping between the lines. There must be ghosts all over the world. They must be as countless as the grains of the sands, it seems to me. And we are so miserably afraid of the light, all of us.

Letter to Georg Brandes (17 February 1871), as translated in Henrik Ibsen : Björnstjerne Björnson. Critical Studies (1899) by Georg Morris Cohen Brandes
Variant translation: The quality of liberty is that, as long as it is being striven after, it goes on expanding. Therefore, the man who stands still in the midst of the struggle and says: "I have it," merely shows by so doing that he has lost it. Now this very contentedness in the possession of a dead liberty is a characteristic of the so-called state; and it is worthless.
As translated in Ibsen : The Man, His Art & His Significance (1907) by Haldane Macfall, p. 238
Variant translation: Neither moral concepts nor art forms can expect to live forever. How much are we obliged to hold on to? Who can guarantee that 2 plus 2 don't add up to 5 on Jupiter?
Context: 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. Therefore, the man who stands still in the midst of the struggle and says, "I have it," merely shows by so doing that he has just lost it. 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. No doubt the franchise, self-taxation, etc., are benefits — but to whom? To the citizen, not to the individual. Now, reason does not imperatively demand that the individual should be a citizen. Far from it. The State is the curse of the individual. With what is Prussia's political strength bought? With the absorption of the individual in the political and geographical idea. The waiter is the best soldier. And on the other hand, take the Jewish people, the aristocracy of the human race — how is it they have kept their place apart, their poetical halo, amid surroundings of coarse cruelty? By having no State to burden them. Had they remained in Palestine, they would long ago have lost their individuality in the process of their State's construction, like all other nations. Away with the State! I will take part in that revolution. Undermine the whole conception of a State, declare free choice and spiritual kinship to be the only all-important conditions of any union, and you will have the commencement of a liberty that is worth something. Changes in forms of government are pettifogging affairs — a degree less or a degree more, mere foolishness. The State has its root in time, and will ripe and rot in time. Greater things than it will fall — religion, for example. Neither moral conceptions nor art-forms have an eternity before them. 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?

As quoted in The Ibsen Calendar : A Quotation from the Works of Henrik Ibsen for Every Day (1913) by C. A. Arfwedson
Context: 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.

Act IV<br>Flertallet har magten — desværre —; men retten har det ikke. Retten har jeg og de andre få, de enkelte. Minoriteten har altid retten. http://books.google.com/books?id=3VcqAAAAYAAJ&amp;q=%22Flertallet+har+magten+desv%C3%A6rre+men+retten+har+det+ikke+Retten+har+jeg+og+de+andre+f%C3%A5+de+enkelte+Minoriteten+har+altid+retten%22&amp;pg=PA134#v=onepage<br>The majority has the might &amp;mdash; more&#x27;s the pity &amp;mdash; but it hasn&#x27;t right. I am right &amp;mdash; I and one or two other individuals like me. The minority is always right. http://books.google.com/books?id=Vl0Xb4lPL5IC&amp;q=%22The+majority+has+the+might+more&#x27;s+the+pity+but+it+hasn&#x27;t+right+I+am+right+I+and+one+or+two+other+individuals+like+me+The+minority+is+always+right%22&amp;pg=PA96#v=onepage <br class="br">An Enemy of the People (1882) <br class="br">Context: Dr, Stockmann: It is the majority in our community that denies me my freedom and seeks to prevent my speaking the truth.<br>Hovstad: The majority always has right on its side.<br>Billing: And truth too, by God!<br>Dr. Stockmann: The majority never has right on its side. Never I say! That is one of those social lies against which an independent, intelligent man 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&#x27;t imagine you will dispute the fact that at present the stupid people are in an absolutely overwhelming majority all the world over. But, good Lord!&amp;mdash; you can never pretend that it is right that the stupid folk should govern the clever ones! [the crowd cries out] Oh yes&amp;mdash; 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. I am in the right&amp;mdash; I and a few other scattered individuals. The minority is always in the right.

Falk, in a statement rich with ironies.
Love's Comedy (1862)

Mrs. Alving, Act II
Ghosts (1881)
Context: I am half inclined to think we are all ghosts, Mr. Manders. It is not only what we have inherited from our fathers and mothers that exists again in us, but all sorts of old dead ideas and all kinds of old dead beliefs and things of that kind. They are not actually alive in us; but there they are dormant, all the same, and we can never be rid of them. Whenever I take up a newspaper and read it, I fancy I see ghosts creeping between the lines. There must be ghosts all over the world. They must be as countless as the grains of the sands, it seems to me. And we are so miserably afraid of the light, all of us.

A Doll's House (1879)
Context: 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.

Letter to Georg Brandes (17 February 1871), as translated in Henrik Ibsen : Björnstjerne Björnson. Critical Studies (1899) by Georg Morris Cohen Brandes
Variant translation: The quality of liberty is that, as long as it is being striven after, it goes on expanding. Therefore, the man who stands still in the midst of the struggle and says: "I have it," merely shows by so doing that he has lost it. Now this very contentedness in the possession of a dead liberty is a characteristic of the so-called state; and it is worthless.
As translated in Ibsen : The Man, His Art & His Significance (1907) by Haldane Macfall, p. 238
Variant translation: Neither moral concepts nor art forms can expect to live forever. How much are we obliged to hold on to? Who can guarantee that 2 plus 2 don't add up to 5 on Jupiter?
Context: 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. Therefore, the man who stands still in the midst of the struggle and says, "I have it," merely shows by so doing that he has just lost it. 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. No doubt the franchise, self-taxation, etc., are benefits — but to whom? To the citizen, not to the individual. Now, reason does not imperatively demand that the individual should be a citizen. Far from it. The State is the curse of the individual. With what is Prussia's political strength bought? With the absorption of the individual in the political and geographical idea. The waiter is the best soldier. And on the other hand, take the Jewish people, the aristocracy of the human race — how is it they have kept their place apart, their poetical halo, amid surroundings of coarse cruelty? By having no State to burden them. Had they remained in Palestine, they would long ago have lost their individuality in the process of their State's construction, like all other nations. Away with the State! I will take part in that revolution. Undermine the whole conception of a State, declare free choice and spiritual kinship to be the only all-important conditions of any union, and you will have the commencement of a liberty that is worth something. Changes in forms of government are pettifogging affairs — a degree less or a degree more, mere foolishness. The State has its root in time, and will ripe and rot in time. Greater things than it will fall — religion, for example. Neither moral conceptions nor art-forms have an eternity before them. 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?

Act IV<br>Flertallet har magten — desværre —; men retten har det ikke. Retten har jeg og de andre få, de enkelte. Minoriteten har altid retten. http://books.google.com/books?id=3VcqAAAAYAAJ&amp;q=%22Flertallet+har+magten+desv%C3%A6rre+men+retten+har+det+ikke+Retten+har+jeg+og+de+andre+f%C3%A5+de+enkelte+Minoriteten+har+altid+retten%22&amp;pg=PA134#v=onepage<br>The majority has the might &amp;mdash; more&#x27;s the pity &amp;mdash; but it hasn&#x27;t right. I am right &amp;mdash; I and one or two other individuals like me. The minority is always right. http://books.google.com/books?id=Vl0Xb4lPL5IC&amp;q=%22The+majority+has+the+might+more&#x27;s+the+pity+but+it+hasn&#x27;t+right+I+am+right+I+and+one+or+two+other+individuals+like+me+The+minority+is+always+right%22&amp;pg=PA96#v=onepage <br class="br">An Enemy of the People (1882) <br class="br">Context: Dr, Stockmann: It is the majority in our community that denies me my freedom and seeks to prevent my speaking the truth.<br>Hovstad: The majority always has right on its side.<br>Billing: And truth too, by God!<br>Dr. Stockmann: The majority never has right on its side. Never I say! That is one of those social lies against which an independent, intelligent man 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&#x27;t imagine you will dispute the fact that at present the stupid people are in an absolutely overwhelming majority all the world over. But, good Lord!&amp;mdash; you can never pretend that it is right that the stupid folk should govern the clever ones! [the crowd cries out] Oh yes&amp;mdash; 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. I am in the right&amp;mdash; I and a few other scattered individuals. The minority is always in the right.

Nora Helmer, Act III
Variant translation: Our home has been nothing but a playroom. I have been your doll-wife, just as at home I was papa's doll-child; and here the children have been my dolls. I thought it great fun when you played with me, just as they thought it great fun when I played with them. That is what our marriage has been, Torvald.
A Doll's House (1879)
Context: 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.

Brand, Act IV
Brand (1866)

Solness, Act I
The Master Builder (1892)

Dr. Rank, Act III, speaking of death
A Doll's House (1879)

Guldstad
Love's Comedy (1862)

Makrina, in Emperor and Galilean (1873), Final lines.

Ulfhejm, in Act I
When We Dead Awaken (1899)

Dr. Rank, Act I
A Doll's House (1879)

Torvald Helmer, Act I
A Doll's House (1879)

Peer Gynt, after he sees a boy cut off his finger to avoid serving in the army, Act III, Scene I
Peer Gynt (1867)

Hilda, Act III
The Master Builder (1892)

Ekdal, Act II
The Wild Duck (1884)

Peer Gynt, declaring that no matter what he does, it is not what people want, Act I, Scene I
Peer Gynt (1867)

Relling, Act V
The Wild Duck (1884)

A Doll's House (1879)

Irene, in Act II
When We Dead Awaken (1899)

Act I
A Doll's House (1879)

Manders, Act I
Ghosts (1881)

Dr. Rank, Act I
A Doll's House (1879)

Relling, Act V
The Wild Duck (1884)

Hjalmar, Act IV
The Wild Duck (1884)

Emperor and Galilean (1873), as quoted by Lester B. Pearson in his address on accepting the Nobel Peace Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway (10 December 1957) http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1957/pearson-acceptance.html

Torvald Helmer, Act I
A Doll's House (1879)

As quoted in The Book of Poisonous Quotes (1993) edited by Colin Jarman, p. 232.

Letter to Georg Brandes (3 January 1882).

Dr. Stockmann, Act IV
An Enemy of the People (1882)

Button-Moulder, Act V, Scene VII
Peer Gynt (1867)

Nora Helmer, Act III
A Doll's House (1879)

Nora Helmer, Act I
A Doll's House (1879)

Letter of 1883, quoted in The Drama of Ibsen and Strindberg (1962) by Frank Laurence Lucas, p. 34.

Hilda, Act III
The Master Builder (1892)

Billing, Act I
An Enemy of the People (1882)

Dr. Stockmann, Act V
An Enemy of the People (1882)

Bernick, Act III
The Pillars of Society (1877)

Hedda, Act II
Hedda Gabler (1890)

Åse, Act I, Scene I
Peer Gynt (1867)

Lövborg, Act II
Hedda Gabler (1890)