Quotes from A Doll's House

“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

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“Four brothers,” Daphne said, shoving the wicket into the ground, “provide quite a marvelous education.”
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― Julia Quinn, quote from The Viscount Who Loved Me

“ALBINOS DEMAND ACTION ON MOVIE SLUR The albino community demanded action yesterday to stop their unfair depiction as yet another movie featured an albino as a deranged hitman. “We’ve had enough,” said Mr. Silas yesterday at a small rally of albinos at London’s Pinewood Studios. “Just because of an unusual genetic abnormality, Hollywood thinks it can portray us as dysfunctional social pariahs. Ask yourself this: Have you ever been, or know anyone who has ever been, a victim of albino crime?” The protest follows hot on the heels of last week’s demonstrations when Colombians and men with ponytails complained of being unrelentingly portrayed as drug dealers. —Extract from The Mole, July 31, 2003”
― Jasper Fforde, quote from The Big Over Easy

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“The Westcotts differed from their friends, their classmates, and their neighbors only in an interest they shared in serious music. They went to a great many concerts—although they seldom mentioned this to anyone—and they spent a good deal of time listening to music on the radio. Their radio was an old instrument, sensitive, unpredictable, and beyond repair. Neither of them understood the mechanics of radio—or of any of the other appliances that surrounded them—and when the instrument faltered, Jim would strike the side of the cabinet with his hand. This sometimes helped. One Sunday afternoon, in the middle of a Schubert quartet, the music faded away altogether. Jim struck the cabinet repeatedly, but there was no response; the Schubert was lost to them forever.”
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