A thousand words will not leave so deep an impression as one deed.

The devil is compromise

Never wear your best trousers when you go out to fight for freedom and truth.

I must make up my mind which is right – society or I.

Deprive the average human being of his life-lie, and you rob him of his happiness

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...

A woman cannot be herself in modern society, with laws made by men and with prosecutors and judges who assess female conduct from a male standpoint.

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.

A community is like a ship; everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm.

Your home is regarded as a model home, your life as a model life. But all this splendor, and you along with it… it’s just as though it were built upon a shifting quagmire. A...

When I was at home with papa, he told me his opinion about everything, and so I had the same opinions; and if I differed from him I concealed the fact, because he would not...

Sleep, O sleep, my dearest boy. / I will cradle you, I will guard you.

A marriage based on full confidence, based on complete and unqualified frankness on both sides; they are not keeping anything back; there’s no deception underneath it all. If I might so put it, it’s an...

But, merciful God! People don’t do such things!

I don’t imagine you will dispute the fact that at present the stupid people are in an absolutely overwhelming majority all the world over.

A forest bird never wants a cage.

These heroes of finance are like beads on a string when one slips off, all the rest follow

Sjel, vær trofast til det siste!Seirens seir er alt å miste.Tapets alt din vinning skapte; -evig eies kun det tapte.

The pillars of truth and the pillars of freedom – they are the pillars of society

Castles in the air – they are so easy to take refuge in. And so easy to build too.

As you can see, I’m a button-moulder. / You must go into my casting ladle.

You see, the point is that the strongest man in the world is he who stands most alone.

Do not use that foreign word “ideals.” We have that excellent native word “lies.”

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...

What business has science and capitalism got, bringing all these new inventions into the works, before society has produced a generation educated up to using them!

The spirit of truth and the spirit of freedom – these are the pillars of society.