“By means of the Jante Law’s ten commandments, Jante holds Jante down. And now you must hear them all: 1. Thou shalt not believe thou art something. 2. Thou shalt not believe thou art as good as we. 3. Thou shalt not believe thou art more wise than we. 4. Thou shalt not fancy thyself better than we. 5. Thou shalt not believe thou knowest more than we. 6. Thou shalt not believe thou art greater than we. 7. Thou shalt not believe thou amountest to anything, 8. Thou shalt not laugh at us. 9. Thou shalt not believe that anyone is concerned with thee. 10. Thou shalt not believe thou canst teach us anything. Some of these commandments may perhaps be quite all right as they sound. But he who has lived under the Law of Jante during the fifteen years it took him to develop, who has come to realize its bloody emphasis and its hysterical thirst for power, regards these commandments very differently.”
―
Aksel Sandemose,
A Fugitive Covers His Tracks
