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What’s a man’s first duty? The answer is brief: To be himself.

Henrik Ibsen

Before I write down one word, I have to have the character in my mind through and through. I must penetrate into the last wrinkle of his soul.
HENRIK IBSEN

Character Mindset Myself Soul Wrinkle Writing
The most dangerous enemy of the truth and freedom amongst us is the compact majority.
HENRIK IBSEN

Compact Dangerous Enemy Majority
I am sticking as closely to my subject as I can; for my subject is precisely this, that it is the masses, the majority
HENRIK IBSEN

Mass Myself Subject
You have never loved me. You have only thought it pleasant to be in love with me.
HENRIK IBSEN

Happiness Love Pleasant Yourself
The man-at-arms is the only man.
HENRIK IBSEN

Distance Man
The starving poet business is no good nowadays.
HENRIK IBSEN

Business Goodness Poet Starve
Oh, law and order! I often think it is that that is at the bottom of all the misery in the world.
HENRIK IBSEN

Chaos Law Misery Myself Order Philosophy Thinking World
The majority is always wrong; the minority is rarely right.
HENRIK IBSEN

Minority Rare Right Wrong
Don’t use that foreign word: ideals. We have the excellent native word: lies.
HENRIK IBSEN

Excellence Foreign Ideal Lying Word
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

Known Myself Stand World
Oh yes, right-right. What is the use of having right on your side if you have not got might?
HENRIK IBSEN

Right Side Yourself
Almost everyone who has gone to the bad early in life has had a deceitful mother.
HENRIK IBSEN

Bad Early Family Hard Time Mom
But a scientific man must live in a little bit of style.
HENRIK IBSEN

Live Man Science Style
You don’t get nothing for nothing in this life.
HENRIK IBSEN

Life Yourself
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

Known Myself Right Yourself
It’s not only what we have inherited from our father and mother that walks in us. It’s all sorts of dead ideas, and lifeless old beliefs, and so forth. They have no vitality, but they cling to us all the same, and we can’t get rid of them.
HENRIK IBSEN

Belief Death Father Inheritance Ourselves Walk

What’s a man’s first duty? The answer is brief: To be himself.

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What’s a man’s first duty? The answer is brief: To be himself.

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Popular Authors

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