Quotes by August Strindberg

“I, too, am beginning to feel an immense need to become a savage and create a new world.””

“Love between a man and woman is war.””

“Everything can happen, everything is possible and probable. Time and place do not exist; on an insignificant basis of reality the imagination spins, weaving new patterns; a mixture of memories, experiences, free fancies, incongruities and improvisations.””

“if you are afraid of loneliness, don't get married””

“The further from one another, the nearer one can be.””

“And why does man weep when he is sad? I asked at last”

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

“Those who won't accept evil never get anything good.””

“You are impossible. You are only a realist, and therefore nothing happens to you.””

“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?””

“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.””

“One gets more and more humble the longer one lives, and in the shadow of death many things look different.””

“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””

“as soon as a work of art is of practical use, betrays a purpose or a tendency its beauty vanishes.””