"A thousand words leave not the same deep impression as does a single deed."
— Henrik Johan Ibsen

"I don't imagine you will dispute the fact that at present the stupid people are in an absolutely overwhelming majority all the world over."
— Henrik Johan Ibsen

"To live is to war with trolls."
— Henrik Johan Ibsen

"The majority is never right. Never, I tell you! That's one of these lies in society that no free and intelligent man can help rebelling against. Who are the people that make up the biggest proportion of the population -- the intelligent ones or the fools?"
— Henrik Johan Ibsen (An Enemy of the People)

"I believe that before all else I am a reasonable human being, just as you are--or, at all events, that I must try and become one."
— Henrik Johan Ibsen (The Doll's House: A Play)

"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."
— Henrik Johan Ibsen

"Don't use that exotic word "ideals". We have a good enough native word: "lies"."
— Henrik Johan Ibsen

""What is the difference in being alone with another and being alone by one's self?"
~Hedda Gabler in the play "Hedda" (sequel to "Hedda Gabler")"
— Henrik Johan Ibsen

"Die Flügel gespannt! Die Segel heraus
Dem Aar gleich des Lebens Meer ich durchsaus -
Lass hinten der Möwen Scharen..
Über Bord mit Vernunft, dem schweren Ballast!
Vielleicht wird mein Schiff vom Strudel erfasst
Doch es ist so herrlich zu fahren"
— Henrik Johan Ibsen

""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.""
— Henrik Johan Ibsen

"en bruger brændevin, en anden bruger løgne; å ja! så brugte vi eventyr om prinser og trolde og allslags dyr"
— Henrik Johan Ibsen (Peer Gynt)