Labor and trouble one can always get through alone, but it takes two to be glad.
Henrik IbsenRead
Friends are to be feared, not so much for what they make us do as what they keep us from doing.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the potential negative influence of friends on our actions and decisions.
Henrik Ibsen's quote suggests that while friends may have a strong impact on our decisions, the more critical aspect is the opportunity cost of their influence. Friends can sometimes discourage us from pursuing our true potential or taking risks, perhaps out of jealousy or a desire to maintain the status quo in the relationship, and it's important to be aware of how their presence can limit our growth and choices.
Themes
FriendsInfluenceDecisionsPotentialOpportunity Cost
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech about the importance of self-discovery, you could use this quote to emphasize being cautious about peer pressure.
More from Henrik Ibsen
All quotes βThe majority never has right on its side. Never, I say! That is one of these social lies against which an independent, intelligent men must wage war. Who is it that constitute the majority of the population in a country? Is it the clever folk, or the stupid? I don't imagine you will dispute the fact that at present the stupid people are in an absolutely overwhelming majority all the world over.
Henrik IbsenRead
I believe that before anything else I'm a human being -- just as much as you are... or at any rate I shall try to become one. I know quite well that most people would agree with you, Torvald, and that you have warrant for it in books; but I can't be satisfied any longer with what most people say, and with what's in books. I must think things out for myself and try to understand them.
Henrik IbsenRead
Ah, I fancy it is just the same with most of what you call your emancipation. You have read yourself into a number of new ideas and opinions. You have got a sort of smattering of recent discoveries in various fields - discoveries that seem to overthrow certain principles which have hitherto been held impregnable and unassailable. But all this has only been a matter of intellect, Miss West - superficial acquisition. It has not passed into your blood.
Henrik IbsenRead
One should never put on one's best trousers to go out to fight for freedom.
Henrik IbsenRead
It is inexcusable for scientists to torture animals; let them make their experiments on journalists and politicians.
Henrik IbsenRead
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If a friend of mine gave a feast, and did not invite me to it, I should not mind a bit. but if a friend of mine had a sorrow and refused to allow me to share it, I should feel it most bitterly. If he shut the doors of the house of mourning against me, I would move back again and again and beg to be admitted so that I might share in what I was entitled to share. If he thought me unworthy, unfit to weep with him, I should feel it as the most poignant humiliation.
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