The Father Quotes

“It's wonderful how, the moment you talk about God and love, your voice becomes hard, and your eyes fill with hatred. No, Margret, you certainly haven't the true faith.”
― August Strindberg, The Father

“Yes, I am crying although I am a man. But has not a man eyes! Has not a man hands, limbs,
senses, thoughts, passions? Is he not fed with the wine food, hurt by the same weapons, warmed and cooled by the same summer and winter as a woman? If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? And if you poison us, do we not die? Why shouldn't a man complain, a soldier weep? Because it is unmanly? Why is it unmanly?”
― August Strindberg, The Father

“One gets more and more humble the longer one lives, and in the shadow of death many things look different.”
― August Strindberg, The Father

“The mother was your friend, you see, but the woman was your enemy, and love between the sexes is strife. Do not think that I gave myself; I did not give, but I took—what I wanted.”
― August Strindberg, The Father

“Ah, what is then this earthly life, But grief, affliction and great strife? E’en when fairest it has seemed, Nought but pain it can be deemed.”
― August Strindberg, The Father

“Because the child bound us together; but the link became a chain.”
― August Strindberg, The Father

“But unfortunately, I am a man, and there is nothing for me to do but, like a Roman, fold my arms across my breast and hold my breath till I die. DOCTOR.”
― August Strindberg, The Father

“My child? A man has no children, it is only woman who has children, and therefore the future is hers when we die childless.”
― August Strindberg, The Father

“My daughter became my enemy when she had to choose between me and you. And you, my wife, you have been my archenemy, because you never let up on me till I lay here lifeless. LAURA.”
― August Strindberg, The Father

“Now you have fulfilled your function as an unfortunately necessary father and breadwinner, you are not needed any longer and you must go.”
― August Strindberg, The Father

“It appears from these letters that for some time past you have been arraying my old friends against me by spreading reports about my mental condition.”
― August Strindberg, The Father

“Do you suppose that he would have spoken if he had been alive? And do you suppose that if any of the dead husbands came back they would be believed?”
― August Strindberg, The Father

“All that on earth hath life and breath To earth must fall before his spear, And sorrow, saved alone from death, Inscribes above the mighty bier. Vanity, all is vanity. Yes,”
― August Strindberg, The Father

“Ah woe is me, how sad a thing Is life within this vale of tears, Death’s angel triumphs like a king, And calls aloud to all the spheres— Vanity, all is vanity. Yes,”
― August Strindberg, The Father

“This house is full of women who all want to have their say about my child.”
― August Strindberg, The Father

“Oh, it is sweet to sleep against a woman’s breast, a mother’s, or a mistress’s, but the mother’s is sweetest. LAURA.”
― August Strindberg, The Father

“I do not believe in a hereafter; the child was my future life. That was my conception of immortality, and perhaps the only one that has any analogy in reality. If you take that away from me, you cut off my life. LAURA.”
― August Strindberg, The Father

“If the child is not mine I have no control over her and don’t want to have any, and that is precisely what you do want, isn’t it? But perhaps you want even more—to have power over the child, but still have me to support you. LAURA.”
― August Strindberg, The Father

“LAURA. Yes, it’s queer, but I have never looked at a man without knowing myself to be his superior. CAPTAIN.”
― August Strindberg, The Father

“LAURA. Oh, we women are really too clever. CAPTAIN.”
― August Strindberg, The Father

“LAURA. Suppose that I was prepared to bear anything, even to being despised and driven out, everything for the sake of being able to keep and control my child, and that I am truthful now when I declare that Bertha is my child, but not yours. Suppose—— CAPTAIN.”
― August Strindberg, The Father

“LAURA. Because the mother is closer to the child, as it has been discovered that no one can tell for a certainty who the father of a child is. CAPTAIN.”
― August Strindberg, The Father

“CAPTAIN. It’s a strange thing that you no sooner speak of God and love than your voice becomes hard and your eyes fill with hate. No, Margret, surely you have not the true faith. NURSE.”
― August Strindberg, The Father

“CAPTAIN. Well, you dear, have I forgotten it? You have been like a mother to me, and always have stood by me when I had everybody against me, but now, when I really need you, you desert me and go over to the enemy. NURSE.”
― August Strindberg, The Father

“NURSE. There, there, there. A father has something besides his child, but a mother has nothing but her child. CAPTAIN.”
― August Strindberg, The Father

“DOCTOR. Exactly. One can make the insane believe anything, just because they are receptive to everything. LAURA.”
― August Strindberg, The Father

“LAURA. There are some circumstances in a family which through honor and conscience one is forced to conceal from the whole world—— DOCTOR.”
― August Strindberg, The Father

“PASTOR. And because she is your wife she is the best of wives? No, my dear fellow, it is she who really wears on you most. CAPTAIN.”
― August Strindberg, The Father

“You do much worse things- you who can see to other planets."- Bertha, "The Father”
― August Strindberg, The Father