“You should never wear your best trousers when you go out to fight for freedom and truth.”

—  Henrik Ibsen, An Enemy of the People

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

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Dec. 13, 2025. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "You should never wear your best trousers when you go out to fight for freedom and truth." by Henrik Ibsen?
Henrik Ibsen photo
Henrik Ibsen69
Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet 1828–1906

Related quotes

Attila photo

“Get ready to hunt when you go hunting. Take your best bow and arrow with you. Wear the best clothes for you while chasing animals in the forest.”

Attila (406–453) King of the Hunnic Empire

Turkish Wikipedia
https://quotestats.com/topic/attila-hun-quotes/

Margaret Thatcher photo

“To wear your heart on your sleeve isn't a very good plan; you should wear it inside, where it functions best.”

Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British stateswoman and politician

Bruce Lee photo

“Instead of buying your children all the things you never had, you should teach them all the things you were never taught. Material wears out but knowledge stays.”

Bruce Lee (1940–1973) Hong Kong-American actor, martial artist, philosopher and filmmaker

“You never really know how or when your life is going to change, and that's for the best.”

Caroline Myss (1952) author from the United States

Defy Gravity : Healing Beyond the Bounds of Reason (2009), p. 17

Nancy Pelosi photo

“We are visiting you to say thank you for your fight for freedom — that we’re on a frontier of freedom, and that your fight is a fight for everyone. And so our commitment is to be there for you until the fight is done.”

Nancy Pelosi (1940) American politician, first female Speaker of the House of Representatives, born 1940

Remarks to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, quoted in "Pelosi makes unannounced trip to Kyiv, becoming highest-ranking US official to meet with Zelensky since the war began" by Michelle Watson and Eliza Mackintosh, CNN https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/01/politics/pelosi-zelensky-kyiv-ukraine-intl/index.html] (1 May 2022)]; also in "Pelosi meets Zelenskyy in Ukraine, says commitment is to be there for you until the fight is done'", Global News (1 May 2022) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ga34dmkMwBU

“But that's how life is. You never know how it's going to turn out, and you can't plan for everything. You just have to do your best dealing with things as they come and hope people forgive you when you make a mistake.”

Janette Rallison (1966) American writer

Source: My Unfair Godmother

Immortal Technique photo

“A bandana full of glittering generality, 'fighting for freedom' and 'fighting terror', but what's reality? Martial law is coming soon to the hood to kill you, while you hanging your flag out your project window.”

Immortal Technique (1978) American rapper and activist

The 4th Branch
Albums, Revolutionary Vol. 2 (2003)

Orson Scott Card photo

“What Alvin figured out was that when you’re Making, you don’t use people like tools. You don’t wear them out to achieve your purpose. You wear yourself out helping them achieve theirs. You wear yourself out teaching and guiding, persuading and listening to advice and letting folks persuade you, when it happens they’re right.”

Orson Scott Card (1951) American science fiction novelist

Source: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Alvin Journeyman (1995), Chapter 14.

Mitch Albom photo

“But she wasn’t around, and that’s the thing when your parents die, you feel like instead of going in to every fight with backup, you are going into every fight alone.”

Mitch Albom For One More Day

Source: For One More Day

Chuck Palahniuk photo

“The best way is not to fight it, just go. Don't be trying all the time to fix things. What you run from only stays with you longer. When you fight something, you only make it stronger.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Invisible Monsters

Source: Invisible Monsters

Related topics