Henrik Ibsen

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The spirit of truth and the spirit of freedom — these are the pillars of society.

Henrik Johan Ibsen (March 20, 1828–May 23, 1906) was an extremely influential Norwegian playwright who was largely responsible for the rise of the modern realistic drama. It is said that Ibsen is the most frequently performed dramatist in the world after Shakespeare.

1 See also
2 Sourced
- 2.1 Hedda Gabler (1890)
3 Attributed
4 External links

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Sourced

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.
- Pillars of Society, Act III (1877)

The spirit of truth and the spirit of freedom — these are the pillars of society.
- Pillars of Society, Act IV

To crave for happiness in this world is simply to be possessed by a spirit of revolt. What right have we to happiness?
- Ghosts, Act I (1881)

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.
- Ghosts, Act II

I hold that man is in the right who is most closely in league with the future.
- Letter to Georg Brandes (January 3, 1882)

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.
- Vildanden, Translation: The Wild Duck, Act II

Tar De livsløgnen fra et gennemsnitsmenneske, så tar De lykken fra ham med det samme.
- Translation: If you take the life lie from an average man, you take away his happiness as well.
- The Wild Duck, Act V

The younger generation will come knocking at my door.
- The Master Builder, Act I (1892)

Castles in the air - they are so easy to take refuge in. And so easy to build, too.
- The Master Builder,, Act III

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Hedda Gabler (1890)

Our common lust for life.
- Act II

Oh courage...oh yes! If only one had that...Then life might be livable, in spite of everything.
- Act II

Back he'll come...With vine leaves in his hair. Flushed and confident.
- Act II

Everything I touch seems destined to turn into something mean and farcical.
- Act IV

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Attributed

A forest bird never wants a cage.

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.

A thousand words will not leave so deep an impression as one deed.

Do not use that foreign word "ideals." We have that excellent native word "lies."

I'm afraid for all those who'll have the bread snatched from their mouths by these machines. What business has science and capitalism got, bringing all these new inventions into the works, before society has produced a generation educated up to using them!

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

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 in the midst of the struggle and says, "I have it," merely shows by doing so that he has just lost it.

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.

Poetry is to hold judgment on your soul.

Really to sin you have to be serious about it.

The great secret of power is never to will to do more than you can accomplish.

The strongest man in the world is he who stands alone.

Tvertimot!
- Translation: On the contrary!
- Notes: This was his answer to the nurse who said she thought he looked better than usual. These were his last words.

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