Hovstad Quotes in An Enemy of the People
Peter Stockmann (lowering his voice a little): It is a curious thing that these farmers’ sons never seem to lose their want of tact.
Mrs. Stockmann: Surely it is not worth bothering about! Cannot you and Thomas share the credit as brothers?
Hovstad: The idol of Authority must be shattered in this town. This gross and inexcusable blunder about the water-supply must be brought home to the mind of every municipal voter.
Hovstad. You are perfectly right; but an editor cannot always act as he would prefer. He is often obliged to bow to the wishes of the public in unimportant matters. Politics are the most important thing in life—for a newspaper, anyway; and if I want to carry my public with me on the path that leads to liberty and progress, I must not frighten them away. If they find a moral tale of this sort in the serial at the bottom of the page, they will be all the more ready to read what is printed above it; they feel more secure, as it were.
Petra. For shame! You would never go and set a snare like that for your readers; you are not a spider!
Dr. Stockmann. You dare not? What nonsense!—you are the editor; and an editor controls his paper, I suppose!
Aslaksen. No, it is the subscribers, Doctor.
Peter Stockmann. Fortunately, yes.
Aslaksen. It is public opinion—the enlightened public—householders and people of that kind; they control the newspapers.
Hovstad: And, in the matter before us, it is now an undoubted fact that Dr. Stockmann has public opinion against him. Now, what is an editor’s first and most obvious duty, gentlemen? Is it not to work in harmony with his readers? Has he not received a sort of tacit mandate to work persistently and assiduously for the welfare of those whose opinions he represents? Or is it possible I am mistaken in that?
Hovstad Quotes in An Enemy of the People
Peter Stockmann (lowering his voice a little): It is a curious thing that these farmers’ sons never seem to lose their want of tact.
Mrs. Stockmann: Surely it is not worth bothering about! Cannot you and Thomas share the credit as brothers?
Hovstad: The idol of Authority must be shattered in this town. This gross and inexcusable blunder about the water-supply must be brought home to the mind of every municipal voter.
Hovstad. You are perfectly right; but an editor cannot always act as he would prefer. He is often obliged to bow to the wishes of the public in unimportant matters. Politics are the most important thing in life—for a newspaper, anyway; and if I want to carry my public with me on the path that leads to liberty and progress, I must not frighten them away. If they find a moral tale of this sort in the serial at the bottom of the page, they will be all the more ready to read what is printed above it; they feel more secure, as it were.
Petra. For shame! You would never go and set a snare like that for your readers; you are not a spider!
Dr. Stockmann. You dare not? What nonsense!—you are the editor; and an editor controls his paper, I suppose!
Aslaksen. No, it is the subscribers, Doctor.
Peter Stockmann. Fortunately, yes.
Aslaksen. It is public opinion—the enlightened public—householders and people of that kind; they control the newspapers.
Hovstad: And, in the matter before us, it is now an undoubted fact that Dr. Stockmann has public opinion against him. Now, what is an editor’s first and most obvious duty, gentlemen? Is it not to work in harmony with his readers? Has he not received a sort of tacit mandate to work persistently and assiduously for the welfare of those whose opinions he represents? Or is it possible I am mistaken in that?
