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
Ghosts! […] I almost think we are all of us ghosts. It is not only what we have inherited from our father and mother that ‘walks’ in us. It is all sorts of dead ideas, and lifeless old beliefs, and so forth. They have no vitality, but they cling to us all the same, and we cannot shake them off. Whenever I take up a newspaper, I seem to see ghosts gliding between the lines. There must be ghosts all the country over, as thick as the sands of the sea. And then we are, one and all, so pitifully afraid of the light.
It's not only what we have inherited from our father and mother that walks in us. It's all sorts of dead ideas, and lifeless old beliefs, and so forth. They have no vitality, but they cling to us all the same, and we can't get rid of them.
Almost everyone who has gone to the bad early in life has had a deceitful mother.
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'm inclined to think we are all ghosts-every one of us. It's not just what we inherit from our mothers and fathers that haunts us. Its all kinds of old defunct theories, all sorts of old defunct beliefs, and things like that.
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.
The spirit of truth and the spirit of freedom - these are the pillars of society.