Emma Goldman "Intellectual Proletarians" (1914)
“

The real pioneers in ideas, in art and in literature have remained aliens to their time, misunderstood and repudiated. And if, as in the case of Zola, Ibsen and Tolstoy, they compelled their time to accept them, it was due to their extraordinary genius and even more so to the awakening and seeking of a small minority for new truths, to whom these men were the inspiration and intellectual support. Yet even to this day Ibsen is unpopular, while Poe, Whitman and Strindberg have never "arrived."

— Emma Goldman

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "The real pioneers in ideas, in art and in literature have remained aliens to their time, misunderstood and repudiated. And if, as in the case of Zola, Ibsen and Tolstoy, they compelled their time to accept them, it was due to their extraordinary genius and even more so to the awakening and seeking of a small minority for new truths, to whom these men were the inspiration and intellectual support. Yet even to this day Ibsen is unpopular, while Poe, Whitman and Strindberg have never "arrived."" in the context of "Emma Goldman "Intellectual Proletarians" (1914)" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Quote Image
Source: Wikiquote: "Henrik Ibsen" (Quotes about) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Henrik Ibsen

About Henrik Ibsen

Henrik Johan Ibsen (20 March 1828 – 23 May 1906) was a Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of realism" and is considered one of the founders of Modernism in theatre.