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
Henrik Ibsen quotes about
To crave for happiness in this world is simply to be possessed by a spirit of revolt. What right have we to happiness?
Different people have different duties assigned them by Nature; Nature has given one the power or the desire to do this, the other that. Each bird must sing with his own throat.
Oh, one soon makes friends with invalids; and I need so much to have someone to live for.
To die in agony upon a cross Does not create a martyr; he must first Will his own execution.
The State is the curse of the individual... The State must go! That will be a revolution which will find me on its side. Undermine the idea of the State, set up in its place spontaneous action, and the idea that spiritual relationship is the only thing that makes for unity, and you will start the elements of a liberty which will be something worth possessing.
Marriage is something you have to give your whole mind to.
Happiness is above all things the calm, glad certainty of innocence.
There is nothing so enervating and exhausting as this hopeless waiting. I dare say this is only a transition period. I will and shall have a victory some day. If the powers that be have shown me so little favor as to place me in this world and make me what I am, the result must be accordingly.
When we dead awaken ... we see that we have never lived.
Everything I touch seems destined to turn into something mean and farcical.
Nobody can put a character on paper without - at any rate in part and at times - sitting as a model for it himself.
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.
There is always a risk in being alive, and if you are more alive, there is more risk.
Now I am steel-set: I follow the call to the clear radiance and glow of the heights.