Quotes from An Enemy of the People

Henrik Ibsen ·  164 pages

Rating: (6.5K votes)


“You see, the point is that the strongest man in the world is he who stands most alone.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from An Enemy of the People


“The majority is never right. Never, I tell you! That's one of these lies in society that no free and intelligent man can help rebelling against. Who are the people that make up the biggest proportion of the population -- the intelligent ones or the fools?”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from An Enemy of the People


“You should never wear your best trousers when you go out to fight for freedom and truth.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from An Enemy of the People


“Public opinion is an extremely mutable thing”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from An Enemy of the People


“The most dangerous enemy of the truth and freedom amongst us is the compact majority”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from An Enemy of the People



“The strongest man in the world is he who stands most alone.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from An Enemy of the People


“A party is like a sausage machine, it grinds up all sorts of heads together into the same baloney ...”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from An Enemy of the People


“Oh, yes--you
can shout me down, I know! But you cannot answer me. The majority has
might on its side--unfortunately; but right it has not.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from An Enemy of the People


“I am in revolt against the age-old lie that the majority is always right.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from An Enemy of the People


“There is so much falsehood both at home and at school. At home one must not speak, and at school we have to stand and tell lies to the children.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from An Enemy of the People



“What sort of truths are they that the majority usually
supports? They are truths that are of such advanced age that they are
beginning to break up. And if a truth is as old as that, it is also in
a fair way to become a lie, gentlemen.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from An Enemy of the People


“Oh yes, right—right. What is the use of having right on your side if you have not got might?”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from An Enemy of the People


“But a scientific man must live in a little bit of style.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from An Enemy of the People


“You should never wear your best trousers when you go out to fight for freedom and truth, Author”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from An Enemy of the People


“The idol of Authority must be shattered in this town.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from An Enemy of the People



“Dr. Stockmann. I have already told you that what I want to speak about
is the great discovery I have made lately--the discovery that all the
sources of our moral life are poisoned and that the hole fabric of our
civic community is founded on the pestiferous soil of falsehood.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from An Enemy of the People


“The right? Ah, what does it help to be in the right if you don't have any power?”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from An Enemy of the People


“A normally constituted truth lives, let us say, as a rule seventeen or eighteen, or at most twenty years—seldom longer.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from An Enemy of the People


“A community is like a ship; everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from An Enemy of the People


“Dr. Stockmann: Yes, I can afford it now. Katherine tells me I earn almost as much as we spend.
Peter Stockmann: Almost—yes!”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from An Enemy of the People



“Nikada ne treba oblačiti svoje najbolje odelo kad čovek ide da se bori za slobodu i istinu.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from An Enemy of the People


“المجتمع أشبه شيء بالسفينة واجب على
كل من فيها أن يكون على استعداد لتولي قيادتها.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from An Enemy of the People


“أقوي رجل في العالم هو ذلك الذي يقف وحيدا دائما”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from An Enemy of the People


“اکثریت هیچ وقت حق ندارد - می‌گویم هیچ وقت! این یکی از آن دروغ‌هایی است که افراد آزاد فکر فهیم باید با آن مبارزه کنند. اکثریت افراد یک کشور کی‌ها هستند؟ مردم هوشیارند یا جماعت کودن؟ تصور نمی‌کنم شکی داشته باشید که فعلاً در سراسر جهان، اکثریت مطلق دایم‌التزاید، با مردم کودن و کم‌فهم است! شما هم نمی‌توانید مدعی شوید که حکومت جماعت کودن بر اقلیت فهیم حق است! (غوغا و فریاد جمعیت) اه، بله! می‌دانم که شما می‌توانید دهان مرا ببندید، ولی نمی‌توانید جوابی به من بدهید! بدبختانه اکثریت زور دارد، اما هرگز حق ندارد. من حق دارم. حق با من و معدودی افراد متفرق دیگر است، حق همیشه با اقلیت است.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from An Enemy of the People


“لا يملك الرجل الحر الحق أن يلوث نفسه كالبهائم. ليس من حقه أن يضع نفسه في موقف يشعر فيه بالحاجة لأن يبصق علي نفسه.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from An Enemy of the People



“Å, allmennheten behøver slett ingen nye tanker. Allmenheten er best tjent med de gamle, gode, anerkjente tanker den allerede har.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from An Enemy of the People


“...det kan da vel, for fanden, aldri i evighet være rett at de dumme skal herske over de kloke.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from An Enemy of the People


“O inimigo mais perigoso da verdade e da liberdade, entre nós, é a enorme e silenciosa maioria dos meus concidadãos.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from An Enemy of the People


“A maioria nunca tem razão! Esta é a maior mentira social que já se disse! Todo o cidadão livre deve protestar contra ela. Quem se constitui na maioria dos habitantes de um país? As pessoas inteligentes ou os imbecis? Estamos todos de acordo, penso eu, em afirmar que, em se considerando o globo terrestre como um todo, os imbecis formam uma maioria esmagadora.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from An Enemy of the People


About the author

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

Popular quotes

“Who are the new people when you do meet them? They're the same old people in masks.
There's nothing new about them at all. They're people.”
― Philip Roth, quote from The Dying Animal


“Do you guys even realize that you’re not really playing ultimate?” Megan asked. “I looked it up online and you’re doing it entirely wrong.”
“We’re doing it McGowan style,” Doug replied with a knowing nod.
“What does that mean?” Megan asked.
“It’s football with a Frisbee,” Finn told her. “And at the end of the game we like to high five a lot and make barking noises. No one knows why or when we started it; we just did.”
― quote from Megan Meade's Guide to the McGowan Boys


“You come up and read books?” asked Gregor. “Read them, eat them, whatever mood strikes me,”
― Suzanne Collins, quote from Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane


“to whom it may concern: please phone me for appointments when you want to see me. I will not answer unsolicited knocks upon the door. I need time to do my work. I will not allow you to murder my work. please understand that what keeps me alive will make me a better person toward and for you when we finally meet under easy and unstrained conditions.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Tales of Ordinary Madness


“Oh! Science! Everything has been revised. For the body and for the soul,--the viaticum,—there are medicine and philosophy,—old wives' remedies and popular songs rearranged. And the pastimes of princes and games they proscribed! Geography, cosmography, mechanics, chemistry!...

Science, the new nobility! Progress. The world marches on! Why shouldn’t it turn?

It is the vision of numbers. We are going toward the Spirit. There’s no doubt about it, an oracle, I tell you. I understand, and not knowing how to express myself without pagan words, I’d rather remain silent.”
― Arthur Rimbaud, quote from A Season in Hell/The Drunken Boat


Interesting books

The Sacred Book of the Werewolf
(3.6K)
The Sacred Book of t...
by Victor Pelevin
Solar
(21K)
Solar
by Ian McEwan
Afterlife
(167)
Afterlife
by Isabella Kruger
Summer and the City
(13.1K)
Summer and the City
by Candace Bushnell
Synecdoche, New York: The Shooting Script
(110)
Synecdoche, New York...
by Charlie Kaufman
Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account
(13.1K)
Auschwitz: A Doctor'...
by Miklós Nyiszli

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.