August Strindberg

“I hated her now with a hatred more fatal than indifference because it was the other side of love.”

“I always disliked dogs, those protectors of cowards who lack the courage to fight an assailant themselves.”

“A man with a so-called character is often a simple piece of mechanism; he has often only one point of view for the extremely complicated relationships of life.”

“Yes, I am crying although I am a man. But has not a man eyes! Has not a man hands, limbs,senses, thoughts, passions? Is he not fed with the wine food, hurt by the same weapons, warmed and cooled by the same summer and winter as a woman? If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? And if you poison us, do we not die? Why shouldn't a man complain, a soldier weep? Because it is unmanly? Why is it unmanly?”

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

“At last everything was satisfactorily arranged, and I could not help admiring the setting: these mingled touches betrayed on a small scale the inspiration of a poet, the research of a scientist, the good taste of an artist, the gourmet’s fondness for good food, and the love of flowers, which concealed in their delicate shadows a hint of the love of women”

“People are constantly clamoring for the joy of life. As for me, I find the joy of life in the hard and cruel battle of life - to learn something is a joy to me.”

“Family ... the home of all social evil, a charitable institution for comfortable women, an anchorage for house-fathers, and a hell for children.”

“I dream, therefore I exist.”

“Friendship can only exist between persons with similar interests and points of view. Man and woman by the conventions of society are born with different interests and different points of view.”

“People who keep dogs are cowards who haven't got the guts to bite people themselves.”

“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.”

“Why is it so painful to watch a person sink? Because there is something unnatural in it, for nature demands personal progress, evolution, and every backward step means wasted energy.”

“What an occupation! To sit and flay your fellow men and then offer their skins for sale and expect them to buy them.”

“That is the thankless position of the father in the family - the provider for all, and the enemy of all.”