1.
Not everyone is capable of madness; and of those lucky enough to be capable, not many have the courage for it.
August Strindberg
2.
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.
August Strindberg
3.
The hood-winked husband shows his anger, and the word jealous is flung in his face. Jealous husband equals betrayed husband. And there are women who look upon jealousy as synonymous with impotence, so that the betrayed husband can only shut his eyes, powerless in the face of such accusations.
August Strindberg
4.
By attempting the impossible one can attain the highest level of the possible.
August Strindberg
5.
I prefer silence. Then you can hear thoughts and see into the past.
In silence you can’t hide anything … as you can in words.
August Strindberg
6.
There are poisons that blind you, and poisons that open your eyes.
August Strindberg
7.
I dream, therefore I exist.
August Strindberg
8.
Some people seem to be born to suffer.
August Strindberg
9.
No matter how far we travel, the memories will follow in the baggage car.
August Strindberg
10.
Now I know the full power of evil. It makes ugliness seem beautiful and goodness seem ugly and weak.
August Strindberg
11.
Religion must be a punishment, because nobody gets religion who does not have a bad conscience.
August Strindberg
12.
Silence hides nothing. Words conceal.
August Strindberg
13.
if you are afraid of loneliness, don't get married
August Strindberg
14.
The world, life and human beings are only an illusion, a phantom, a dream image.
August Strindberg
15.
I find my joy of living in the fierce and ruthless battles of life, and my pleasure comes from learning something.
August Strindberg
16.
That is the thankless position of the father in the family-the provider for all, and the enemy of all.
August Strindberg
17.
Society is a madhouse whose wardens are the officials and the police.
August Strindberg
18.
People who keep dogs are cowards who haven't got the guts to bite people themselves.
August Strindberg
19.
When is revolution legal? When it succeeds!
August Strindberg
20.
The will ... is the driving force of the mind. If it's injured, the mind falls to pieces.
August Strindberg
21.
Everything can happen, everything is possible and probable. Time and place do not exist; on a significant bases of reality, the imagination spins, weaving new patterns; a mixture of memories, experiences, free fancies, incongruities and improvisations.
August Strindberg
22.
What is economics? A science invented by the upper class in order to acquire the fruits of the labor of the underclass
August Strindberg
23.
I love her and she loves me, and we hate each other with a wild hatred born of love.
August Strindberg
24.
Sometimes not seeing things can be a blessing.
August Strindberg
25.
What people call success is only preparation for the next failure.
August Strindberg
26.
I do not care about my own appearance, but I would hope that people could see into my soul, and that is presented better in these photographs than in others. (On his self-portraits)
August Strindberg
27.
I hated her now with a hatred more fatal than indifference because it was the other side of love.
August Strindberg
28.
Necessity knows no rules.
August Strindberg
29.
There comes a moment... When imagination gives out and Reality leaps forth. It is frightful!
August Strindberg
30.
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.
August Strindberg
31.
Life is not so idiotically mathematical that only the big eat the small; it is just as common for a bee to kill a lion or at least to drive it mad.
August Strindberg
32.
Love between a man and woman is war.
August Strindberg
33.
On the much revered family of North American mythology - and a metaphor for the Ruling Alliance:
Sacred family! .... The supposed home of all the virtues, where innocent children are tortured into their first falsehoods, where wills are broken by parental tyranny, and self-respect smothered by crowded, jostling egos.
August Strindberg
34.
Growing old-it's not nice, but it's interesting.
August Strindberg
35.
When I free my body from its clothes, from all their buttons, belts, and laces, it seems to me that my soul takes a deeper, freer breath.
August Strindberg
36.
I see the playwright as a lay preacher peddling the ideas of his time in popular form.
August Strindberg
37.
Those who won't accept evil never get anything good.
August Strindberg
38.
I've thought of becoming a photographer! To save my talent as a writer.
August Strindberg
39.
When people refuse to speak out for too long, it's like water that's stagnant and starts to rot!
August Strindberg
40.
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.
August Strindberg
41.
Family . . . the home of all social evil, a charitable institution for comfortable women, an anchorage for house-fathers, and a hell for children.
August Strindberg
42.
Meeting each other and leaving each other. Leaving and meeting. That's what life is!
August Strindberg
43.
When people drink, they talk, and talk is dangerous!
August Strindberg
44.
What an occupation! To sit and flay your fellow men and then offer their skins for sale and expect them to buy them.
August Strindberg
45.
God preserve us from writers who regurgitate what they have learnt from books! It is people's secrets we want to know - it is the natural history of the human heart that we have been trying to put down for a thousand years and everyone must and can leave their contribution.
August Strindberg
46.
Oh, I have loved him too much to feel no hate for him.
August Strindberg
47.
Some people have accused my tragedy of being too sad, as though one desired a merry tragedy. People clamor for Enjoyment as though Enjoyment consisted in being foolish. I find enjoyment in the powerful and terrible struggles of life; and the capability of experiencing something, of learning something, gives me pleasure.
August Strindberg
48.
Sorrow has the fortunate peculiarity that it preys upon itself. It dies of starvation. Since it is essentially an interruption of habits, it can be replaced by new habits. Constituting, as it does, a void, it is soon filled up by a real horror vacuum.
August Strindberg
49.
It's wonderful how, the moment you talk about God and love, your voice becomes hard, and your eyes fill with hatred. No, Margret, you certainly haven't the true faith.
August Strindberg
50.
I always disliked dogs, those protectors of cowards who lack the courage to fight an assailant themselves.
August Strindberg
