“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
“Because I wasn’t anything anymore. Not anythingI love or know or care about. Because thou shalt not kill, Kade. Thou shalt not kill. With all my heart I believed this. And I killed. So what am I now? And why should I live? How am I even alive? Because if this is what our lives are--if doing this to others before they do it to us is all our lives are--we’re already dead. Honest to God I feel it, Kade. I’m dead. The hell with me.”
― David James Duncan, quote from The Brothers K
“Most good things come with the risk of something bad.”
― Richelle Mead, quote from Succubus Blues
“How'd you like to gaze at a beer can throughout eternity? It might not be so bad. There'd be nothing to fear.”
― Philip K. Dick, quote from A Scanner Darkly
“That morning, she had found an envelope stuffed into her locker. It was from the Mercer Hotel, and held a plastic door key for their suite. "See you there tonight," Oliver had written. "Chomp! Chomp!”
― Melissa de la Cruz, quote from Masquerade
“I felt that my life was permanently damaged, that I could never be normal again, that the rest of my life would just be a shell.”
― John Marsden, quote from Tomorrow, When the War Began
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.