Quotes from A Doll's House

Henrik Ibsen ·  122 pages

Rating: (85.7K votes)


“You have never loved me. You have only thought it pleasant to be in love with me.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House


“HELMER: But this is disgraceful. Is this the way you neglect your most sacred duties?

NORA: What do you consider is my most sacred duty?

HELMER: Do I have to tell you that? Isn't it your duty to your husband and children?

NORA: I have another duty, just as sacred.

HELMER: You can't have. What duty do you mean?

NORA: My duty to myself.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House


“You see, there are some people that one loves, and others that perhaps one would rather be with.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House


“I must make up my mind which is right – society or I.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House


“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 Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House



“Helmer: I would gladly work night and day for you. Nora- bear sorrow and want for your sake. But no man would sacrifice his honor for the one he loves.
Nora: It is a thing hundreds of thousands of women have done.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House


“I believe that before anything else I'm a human being -- just as much as you are... or at any rate I shall try to become one. I know quite well that most people would agree with you, Torvald, and that you have warrant for it in books; but I can't be satisfied any longer with what most people say, and with what's in books. I must think things out for myself and try to understand them.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House


“But no man would sacrifice his honor for the one he loves."

"It is a thing hundreds of thousands of women have done.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House


“NORA: I must stand on my own two feet if I'm to get to know myself and the world outside. That's why I can't stay here with you any longer.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House


“Mrs LINDE: When you've sold yourself once for the sake of others, you don't do it second time.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House



“Nora: It's true Torvald. When I lived at home with Papa, he used to tell me his opinion about everything, and so I had the same opinion. If I thought differently, I had to hide it from him, or he wouldn't have liked it. He called me his little doll, and he used to play with me just as I played with my dolls. Then I came to live in your house -

Helmer: That's no way to talk about our marriage!

Nora [undisturbed]: I mean when I passed out of Papa's hands into yours. You arranged everything to suit your own tastes, and so I came to have the same tastes as yours.. or I pretended to. I'm not quite sure which.. perhaps it was a bit of both -- sometimes one and sometimes the other. Now that I come to look at it, I've lived here like a pauper -- simply from hand to mouth. I've lived by performing tricks for you, Torvald. That was how you wanted it. You and Papa have committed a grievous sin against me: it's your fault that I've made nothing of my life.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House


“With me you could have been another person.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House


“HELMER:—To forsake your home, your husband, and your children! You don’t consider what the world will say.
NORA:—I can pay no heed to that. I only know what I must do.
HELMER:—It is exasperating! Can you forsake your holiest duties in this world?
NORA:—What do you call my holiest duties?
HELMER:—Do you ask me that? Your duties to your husband and your children.
NORA:—I have other duties equally sacred.
HELMER:—Impossible! What duties do you mean?
NORA:—My duties towards myself.
HELMER:—Before all else you are a wife and a mother.
NORA:—That I no longer believe. I think that before all else I am a human being, just as much as you are—or at least I will try to become one.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House


“When I lost you, it was as if all the solid ground dissolved from under my feet. Look at me; I'm a half-drowned man now, hanging onto a wreck.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House


“I'm also like a half-drowned woman on a wreck. No one to suffer with; no one to care for.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House



“I'll risk everything together with you.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House


“Our home has been nothing but a playroom. I have been your doll-wife, just as at home I was papa's doll-child; and here the children have been my dolls.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House


“How can I hold you close enough?”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House


“Anyone who's sold herself for somebody else once isn't going to do it again.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House


“[From below comes the noise of a door slamming.]”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House



“There are people one loves and others one likes to talk to”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House


“You arranged everything according to your own taste, and so I got the same tastes as you - or else I pretended to. I am really not quite sure which - I think sometimes the one and sometimes the other.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House


“Nora: Torvald, don't look at me like that!
Torvald: Can't I look at my richest treasure? At all that beauty that's mine, mine alone-completely and utterly.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House


“However wretched I may feel, I want to prolong the agony as long as possible. All my patients are like that. And so are those who are morally diseased..”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House


“Torvald: I would gladly work night and day for you, Nora--bear sorrow and want for your sake. But no man would sacrifice his honour for the one he loves.
Nora: But hundreds of thousands of women have done!”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House



“Helmer: To desert your home, your husband and your children! And you don‘t consider what people will say!

Nora: I cannot consider that at all. I only know that it is necessary
for me.

Helmer: It‘s shocking. This is how you would neglect your most sacred duties.

Nora: What do you consider my most sacred duties?

Helmer: Do I need to tell you that? Are they not your duties to your husband and your children?

Nora: I have other duties just as sacred.

Helmer: That you have not. What duties could those be?

Nora: Duties to myself.

Helmer: Before all else, you are a wife and mother.

Nora: I don‘t believe that any longer. 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. I know quite well, Torvald, that most people would think you right, and that views of that kind are to be found in books; but I can no longer content myself with what most people say, or with what is found in books. I must think over things for myself and get to understand them.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House


“What good would that ever do me if you were gone from this world, as you say? Not the slightest.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House


“Zar nije neobično dražesna? To je bilo mišljenje i čitavog društva. Ali užasno je tvrdoglavo - to slatko malo stvorenje.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House


“[Gospođa Linde:]Čovek mora da živi, gospodine doktore.
[Rank:]Da, uobičajeno je shvatanje da je to tako neophodno.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House


Video

About the author

Henrik Ibsen
Born place: in Skien, Norway
Born date March 20, 1828
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“This life we endure - how strange, yet how jolly”
― Chris Ware, quote from Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth


“Rincewind rather enjoyed times like this. They convinced him that he wasn’t mad because, if he was mad, that left no word at all to describe some of the people he met.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from Sourcery


“We may insist as often as we like that man's intellect is powerless in comparison to his instinctual life, and we may be right in this. Nevertheless, there is something peculiar about this weakness. The voice of the intellect is a soft one, but it will not rest until it has gained a hearing. Finally, after a countless succession of rebuffs, it succeeds.”
― Sigmund Freud, quote from The Future of an Illusion


“He doesn't teach you what to think. He teaches you how to think.”
― Lurlene McDaniel, quote from Don't Die, My Love


“I wish writing were really like the way Andy staged it here: Me in a mania at a desk while a group of people stand around cheering in awe. More realistically, it's me pooping around on Twitter until I get an idea.”
― Lin-Manuel Miranda, quote from Hamilton: The Revolution


Interesting books

Just One Day
(70.1K)
Just One Day
by Gayle Forman
Our Town
(38.5K)
Our Town
by Thornton Wilder
Grave Mercy
(80.2K)
Grave Mercy
by Robin LaFevers
The Burning Bridge
(86.1K)
The Burning Bridge
by John Flanagan
Om Chanting and Meditation
(317)
Om Chanting and Medi...
by Amit Ray
Batman: The Killing Joke
(136.4K)
Batman: The Killing...
by Alan Moore

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.