In the old days, one married a wife; now one forms a company with a female partner, or moves in to live with a friend. And then one seduces the partner, or defiles the friend.
—August Strindberg
Topics: Marriage
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
Topics: Sadness, Sorrow
Now I know the full power of evil. It makes ugliness seem beautiful and goodness seem ugly and weak.
—August Strindberg
Topics: Evil
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
Topics: Learning
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.
—August Strindberg
Topics: Friends and Friendship
Antipathy, dissimilarity of views, hate, contempt, can accompany true love.
—August Strindberg
Topics: Hate
That is the thankless position of the father in the family—the provider for all, and the enemy of all.
—August Strindberg
Topics: Father, Fathers
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.
—August Strindberg
Topics: Failure
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
Topics: Happiness
Sometimes not seeing things can be a blessing.
—August Strindberg
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
Topics: Writers, Authors & Writing, Writing
No matter how far we travel, the memories will follow in the baggage car.
—August Strindberg
Topics: Memories
I hated her now with a hatred more fatal than indifference because it was the other side of love.
—August Strindberg
Topics: Love
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
I dream, therefore I exist.
—August Strindberg
Topics: Dreams
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
Topics: Family
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
Topics: Character
I always disliked dogs, those protectors of cowards who lack the courage to fight an assailant themselves.
—August Strindberg
Topics: Dogs
I loathe people who keep dogs. They are cowards who haven’t got the guts to bite people themselves.
—August Strindberg
I find my joy of living in the fierce and ruthless battles of life.
—August Strindberg
Topics: Action, Happiness
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
Ingrid Bergman Swedish Actor
Henrik Ibsen Norwegian Playwright
Christina, Queen of Sweden Swedish Monarch
Ingmar Bergman Swedish Film and Stage Director
Maurice Maeterlinck Belgian Dramatist
George Bernard Shaw Irish Playwright
Dorothy L. Sayers English Novelist, Playwright
Arthur Miller American Playwright
Robertson Davies Canadian Novelist, Playwright
Dodie Smith British Novelist