Henrik Ibsen Quotes
Public opinion is an extremely mutable thing
Ibsen, Henrik. An Enemy of the People. Translated by Eleanor Marx-Aveling, Walter Scott, 1890, p. 231.
Elijiah Lovejoy had been a newspaper publisher who was a strong abolitionist in a community – Alton, Illinois – that was very pro-slavery. Public opinion was outraged by the abolitionist writings in Lovejoy’s newspaper. When the mayor and other members of the public could not persuade Lovejoy to cease publication, they formed a mob and attacked his offices destroying the printing presses and killing Lovejoy. The Mayor and the law enforcement officials, not only did not stop the mob, but helped fire them up and impel them on their “downward course.” The potential conflict between public opinion and the rights of individuals or groups must be managed in a democracy lest it become a violent “tyranny of the majority” that is typical of many fascist states.
Opposition to the Bolsheviks
Henrik Johan Ibsen was a Norwegian playwright and theatre director. As one of the founders of modernism in theatre, Ibsen is often referred to as "the father of realism" and one of the most influential playwrights of his time. His major works include Brand, Peer Gynt, An Enemy of the People, Emperor and Galilean, A Doll's House, Hedda Gabler, Ghosts, The Wild Duck, When We Dead Awaken, Rosmersholm, and The Master Builder. Ibsen is the most frequently performed dramatist in the world after Shakespeare, and A Doll's House was the world's most performed play in 2006.
