Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Johan Ibsenwas a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of realism" and is one of the founders of Modernism in theatre. His major works include Brand, Peer Gynt, An Enemy of the People, Emperor and Galilean, A Doll's House, Hedda Gabler, Ghosts, The Wild Duck, Rosmersholm, The Master Builder and John Gabriel Borkman. He is the most frequently performed dramatist in the world after Shakespeare, and A Doll's House...
NationalityNorwegian
ProfessionPlaywright
Date of Birth20 March 1828
CitySkien, Norway
CountryNorway
I believe that before anything else I'm a human being -- just as much as you are... or at any rate I shall try to become one. I know quite well that most people would agree with you, Torvald, and that you have warrant for it in books; but I can't be satisfied any longer with what most people say, and with what's in books. I must think things out for myself and try to understand them.
In the decisive moment I won the victory over myself. I chose to live. And believe me, it takes courage to choose life under those circumstances.
Was the majority right when they stood by while Jesus was crucified? Was the majority right when they refused to believe that the earth moved around the sun and let Galileo be driven to his knees like a dog? It takes fifty years for the majority to be right. The majority is never right until it does right.
Helmer: "Before all else you are a wife and a mother." Nora: "That I no longer believe. I believe that before all else I am a human being."
I believe that, before all else, I'm a human being, no less than you.
It is not for a care-free existence I am fighting, but for the possibility of devoting myself to the task which I believe and know has been laid upon me by God -- the work which seems to me more important and needful in Norway than any other, that of arousing the nation and leading it to think great thoughts.
The strongest man in the world is he who stands alone.
Emperor? You old fake! / You're no Emperor. You're just an onion. / Now then, little Peer, I'm going to peel you.
One should never put on one's best trousers to go out to battle for freedom and truth.
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!
Do not use that foreign word 'ideals.' We have that excellent native word 'lies.'
The pillars of truth and the pillars of freedom - they are the pillars of society.
The worst enemy of truth and freedom in our society is the compact majority.
Never wear your best trousers when you go out to fight for freedom and truth.