Quotes from August Strindberg

I do not believe in a hereafter; the child was my future life. That was my conception of immortality, and perhaps the only one that has any analogy in reality. If you take that away from me, you cut off my life. LAURA.

but I so often forget what I know! QUARANTINE

PASTOR. Violence aside now, admit that he suffers from fixed ideas. DOCTOR. I think your ideas are even more fixed, pastor! PASTOR

In the midst of happiness grows a seed of unhappiness. Happiness consumes itself like a flame. It cannot burn for ever, it must go out, and the presentiment of its end destroys it at its very peak.

LAURA. Yes! It's strange, but I've never been able to look at a man without feeling I'm his superior. CAPTAIN

Yes, you and the Baptists have found the only true faith. You are indeed lucky!

You do much worse things- you who can see to other planets.- Bertha, The Father

Bet vai tu zini par manu b?rn?bu? Vai tu zini, cik man bija sliktas m?jas un cik daudz ?auna es tur dab?ju iem?c?ties? Š?iet, ka tas n?k l?dzi mantojum?, no citiem augumiem, bet no k?? No pirm? auguma, t? bija rakst?ts b?rnu gr?mat?s, un liekas, ka piepild?s... T?p?c nevaino mani, tad es savuk?rt nevainošu savus vec?kus, kuri var?tu vainot sav?jos un t? joproj?m!

That really is the worst revenge you can take, for there's nothing he loathes more than magnanimity. KURT

Og la oss ikke anklage Herren om vi ser små uskyldige barn lide. Ingen kan vite hvorfor, men den guddommelige rettferdighet lar oss ane at det er på grunn av forbrytelser begått før ankomsten til denne verden.

PASTOR. And because she is your wife she is the best of wives? No, my dear fellow, it is she who really wears on you most. CAPTAIN.

Se her, mine brødre, en menneskeskjebne blant mange andre, og erkjenn at et menneskes liv kan ta seg ut som en dårlig spøk!

I got up at 5 o'clock and saw the sun rise in a marvelous sky. A bright heart of light with a green rim fell on my bed three times.

I saved your father from destitution, and he rewarded me with all the terrible hatred that a debt of gratitude breeds… he taught his family to speak ill of me. STUDENT

I have wept outwardly so that my eyes have paled, and inwardly so that my soul is washed clean!

But, like the rest of mankind, we lived our lives unconscious as children, full of imagination, ideals, and illusions, and then we awoke; it was all over.

LAURA. There are some circumstances in a family which through honor and conscience one is forced to conceal from the whole world—— DOCTOR.

DOCTOR. Exactly. One can make the insane believe anything, just because they are receptive to everything. LAURA.

NURSE. There, there, there. A father has something besides his child, but a mother has nothing but her child. CAPTAIN.

CAPTAIN. Well, you dear, have I forgotten it? You have been like a mother to me, and always have stood by me when I had everybody against me, but now, when I really need you, you desert me and go over to the enemy. NURSE.

THE MOTHER: You don't ask much of life, do you? THE LADY: Why should I? You don't get what you ask for anyway.

CAPTAIN. It's a strange thing that you no sooner speak of God and love than your voice becomes hard and your eyes fill with hate. No, Margret, surely you have not the true faith. NURSE.

conhece a vida e os homens através do sofrimento, e os despreza com esse forte e nobre desdém que tem origem na profunda convicção da relativa nulidade de tudo, inclusive o próprio eu.

LAURA. Because the mother is closer to the child, as it has been discovered that no one can tell for a certainty who the father of a child is. CAPTAIN.