Ibsen, Henrik Johan

Norwegian dramatist

wrote plays "Catilina" 1850 (under pseudonym Brynjolf Bjarme), "Brand" 1866, "Peer Gynt" 1867, "Emperor and Galilean" 1873, "A Doll's House" 1879, "Ghosts" 1881, "An Enemy of the People" 1882, "The Wild Duck" 1884, "Hedda Gabler" 1890, "The Master Builder" 1892

father of realist drama

• "The strongest man in the world is he who stands alone."
• "One should never put on one's best trousers to go out to battle for freedom and truth."
• "A community is like a ship, everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm."
• "What in fact have I achieved, however much it may seem? Bits and pieces… trivialities. But here they won't tolerate anything else, or anything more. If I wanted to take one step in advance of the current views and opinions of the day, that would put paid to any power I have. Do you know what we are… those of us who count as pillars of society? We are society's tools, neither more nor less."
• "Different people have different duties assigned to them by Nature; Nature has given one the power or the desire to do this, and the other that. Each bird must sing with his own throat."