Dr. Eberhard Isak Borg Quotes

In our relations with other people, we mainly discuss and evaluate their character and behavior. That is why I have withdrawn from nearly all so-called relations. This has made my old age rather lonely. My life has been full of hard work and I am grateful. It began as toil for bread and butter and ended in a love of science.

Professor Isak Borg: Give me a cigar, anytime. That's stimulating and relaxing. That's a vice for men.
Marianne Borg: And what vices may a woman have?
Professor Isak Borg: Weeping, giving birth and speaking ill of her neighbors.

Old sourpuss.

If I have been worried or sad during the day, it often calms me to recall childhood memories.

In the early hours of June 1st, I had a weird and very unpleasant dream. I dreamt that during my morning walk I lost my way among empty streets with ruined houses.

I dozed off, but was haunted by vivid and humiliating dreams. There was something overpowering in these dream images that bored relentlessly into my mind.

My name is Isak Borg and I am 78. Tomorrow I shall receive an honorary degree in Lund Cathedral.

There should be a law forbidding women to smoke.

Professor Isak Borg: The place where wild strawberries grow!
Professor Isak Borg: Perhaps I got a little sentimental. Perhaps I got tired and felt a bit sad. It's not impossible that I began to think of this and that, associated with places where I played as a child. I don't know how it happened, but the day's clear reality dissolved into the even clearer images of memory that appeared before my eyes with the strength of a true stream of events.

Dr. Evald Borg: It's absurd to bring children into this world and think they'll be better off than we were.
Marianne Borg: That's just an excuse.
Dr. Evald Borg: Call it what you want. I was an unwanted child in a hellish marriage.

Marianne Borg: I saw you with your mother, and I was panic-stricken.
Professor Isak Borg: I don't understand.
Marianne Borg: I thought: That's his mother. An old woman, cold as ice, more forbidding than death. And this is her son, and there are light years between them. He himself says he's a living corpse. And Evald is growing just as lonely, cold and dead. And I thought of the baby inside me. All along the line, there's nothing but cold and death and loneliness. It must end somewhere.

Marianne Borg: I know that this is wrong.
Dr. Evald Borg: There's neither right nor wrong. We act according to our needs.

Marianne Borg: You're a coward.
Dr. Evald Borg: Yes. This life sickens me. I will not be forced to take on a responsibility that will make me live for one day longer than I want to. And you know that I mean what I say.

All along the line, there's nothing but cold and death and loneliness

If I have been feeling worried or sad during the day, I have a habit of recalling scenes from childhood to calm me. So it was this evening.

Professor Isak Borg: I like you, Marianne.
Marianne Borg: I like you too, uncle Isak.

Professor Isak Borg: I have liked having you about the house.
Marianne Borg: Like a cat.
Professor Isak Borg: A cat, or a human being.