Henryk Ibsen cytaty

strona 2

„Są ludzie, którzy od razu idą na dno, kiedy utkwi w nich parę ziaren śrutu, i nigdy się już nie podniosą.”

„Być poetą znaczy być swoim własnym sędzią.”

„Wysoko się musi wznieść, kto upadł nisko.”

„Wszystko, co napisałem, jest związane jak najściślej z tym, co przeżyłem wewnętrznie.”

„Kiedy jest się na proszonym obiedzie, to trzeba zapracować na deser.”

„Nikt nie umiera w samym środku piątego aktu.”

„Kiedy spoglądam wstecz na całe twoje życie, mam wrażenie, że patrzę na pole walki, na którym wszędzie widać pogruchotane egzystencje ludzkie.”

„Pisać to znaczy odbywać sąd nad sobą samym.”

„Niewyśpiewane pieśni są zawsze najpiękniejsze.”

„Wprost przeciwnie!”

„Miłość nie potępia – miłość oczyszcza i dźwiga.”

„Tworzyć znaczy: sąd odbywać
Nad swą własną duszą.”

„Kochaj, żeby żyć, i żyj, żeby kochać.”

“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!”

“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.”

“I don't know whether you find also in your part of the world that there are certain people who go zealously snuffing about to smell out moral corruption, and, as soon as they have found some, put the person concerned into some lucrative position where they can keep their eye on him. Healthy natures are left out in the cold.”

“Many a man can save himself if he admits he's done wrong and takes his punishment.”

“To think it, wish it, even want it —
but do it! No, that I cannot understand.”

“Castles in the air — they are so easy to take refuge in. And so easy to build, too.”

“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.”

“Whether I pound or am being pounded,
all the same there will be moaning!”

“Tho' Doubt's beleaguering forces hem us in,
Yet Truth upon the Serpent's head shall trample.
The cause of Love shall win”

“Forget that foreign word "ideals." We have that good old native word: "lies."”

“Nora. Look here, Doctor Rank - you know you want to live.”

“When we dead awaken. … We see that we have never lived.”

“I have already told you that what I want to speak about is the great discovery I have made lately - the discovery that all the sources of our moral life are poisoned and that the whole fabric of our civic community is founded on the pestiferous soil of falsehood.”

“Rank. Certainly. However wretched I may feel, I want to prolong the agony as long as possible.”

“Mrs. Elvsted: You have some hidden motive in this, Hedda!
Hedda: Yes, I have. I want for once in my life to have power to mold a human destiny.
Mrs. Elvsted: Have you not the power?
Hedda: I have not—and never had it.
Mrs. Elvsted: Not your husband's?
Hedda: Do you think it's worth the trouble? Oh, if only you could understand how poor I am. And fate has made you so rich!”

“You don't get nothing for nothing in this life.”

“To crave for happiness in this world is simply to be possessed by a spirit of revolt. What right have we to happiness?”

“Brand: Answer me, God, in the jaws of death:
Is there no salvation for the Will of Man?
No small measure of salvation?
[The avalanche buries him. The valley is swallowed up. ]
A Voice: [Calls through the crashing thunder] He is the God of Love.”

“What's to become of the morally sound? Left out in the cold, I suppose. We must heal the sick.”

“If you take the life lie from an average man, you take away his happiness as well.”

“A marriage based on full confidence, based on complete and unqualified frankness on both sides; they are not keeping anything back; there's no deception underneath it all. If I might so put it, it's an agreement for the mutual forgiveness of sin.”

“There are three Empires. First there is the Empire which was founded on the tree of knowledge. Then there is the Empire founded on the tree of the Cross. The third is still a secret Empire which will be founded on the tree of knowledge and the tree of the Cross — brought together.”

“There can be no freedom or beauty about a home life that depends on borrowing and debt.”

“It is inexcusable for scientists to torture animals; let them make their experiments on journalists and politicians.”

“I hold that man is in the right who is most closely in league with the future.”

“The common people are nothing more than the raw material of which a People is made.”

“Really to sin you have to be serious about it.”

“The black, cold, icy water. Down and down, without end — if it would only end.”

“I've the most extraordinary longing to say 'Bloody Hell!”