To live is to war with trolls.

To live is to war with trolls in heart and soul.
To write is to sit in judgement on oneself.

You remember the little poem by Ibsen that I quoted to you during one of our early meetings? MYSELF: Only vaguely. Something about self-judgement. DR. VON HALLER: No, no; self-judgement comes later. Now pay attention, please: To live is to battle with trolls in the vaults of heart and brain. To write: that is to sit in judgement over one’s self.

"You played it with great seriousness. And it is not such an uncommon game. Do you know Ibsen's poem — <blockquote>
To live it to do battle with trolls
in the vaults of the heart and brain.
To write: that is to sit
in judgement over one's self."
</blockquote>

To live is to be haunted.

"Out there, where the sky shines, humans say: "To thyself be true". In here, trolls say: "Be true to yourself - ish." - Peer Gynt"

Life is a warfare against the malice of others.

The life of an individual is a constant struggle, and not merely a metaphorical one against want or boredom, but also an actual struggle against other people. He discovers adversaries everywhere, lives in continual conflict and dies with sword in hand.

But alas this is a real life - and it’s been a real fight just to keep my mind from committing treason.

But life is a battle: may we all be enabled to fight it well!

life's endless war against the self you cannot live without.

It is not with earth, though I must till it, I feel at war..but I may not profit of what it bears of beauty,untoiling, Nor gratify my thousands swelling thoughts with knowledge, Nor allay my thousand fears of death and life.

Virtue is a state of war, and to live in it we have always to combat with ourselves.

She turns to me sharply. “To live _is_ to fight,” she snaps. “To preserve life is to fight _everything_ that man stands for.” She takes an angry huff of air. “And now her, too, with all the bombs. I fight them every time I bandage the blackened eye of a woman, every time I remove shrapnel from a bomb victim.”

Her voice has raised but she lowers it again. “That's my war,” she says. “That's the war I'm fighting.