Søren Kierkegaard quotes
Danish thinker often called the first existentialist. Explored anxiety, despair, and the leap of faith — what it costs to become a self before God.
27 passages across 13 themes. More on Søren Kierkegaard.
On authenticity
“The most common form of despair is not being who you are.”
“It belongs to the imperfection of everything human that man can only attain his desire by passing through its opposite.”
“Socrates did not stop with a philosophical consideration of mankind; he addressed himself to each one individually, wrested everything from him, and sent him away empty-handed.”
“The world is rejuvenated, but as Heine so wittily remarked, it was rejuvenated by romanticism to such a degree that it became a baby again.”
“Irony is a qualification of subjectivity.”
“Old age realizes the dreams of youth: look at Dean Swift; in his youth he built an asylum for the insane, in his old age he was himself an inmate.”
“Most men pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry past it.”
“If the ethical – that is, social morality – is the highest ... then no categories are needed other than the Greek philosophical categories.”
On death
“Death cannot explain itself. The earnestness consists precisely in this, that the observer must explain it to himself.”
“Since my earliest childhood a barb of sorrow has lodged in my heart. As long as it stays I am ironic — if it is pulled out I shall die.”
“The tyrant dies and his rule is over; the martyr dies and his rule begins.”
On freedom
“Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.”
“How absurd men are! They never use the liberties they have, they demand those they do not have. They have freedom of thought, they demand freedom of speech.”
On faith
“Faith is the highest passion in a human being.”
“To stand on one leg and prove God's existence is a very different thing from going on one's knees and thanking Him.”
On action
“God creates out of nothing. Wonderful you say. Yes, to be sure, but He does what is still more wonderful: He makes saints out of sinners.”
“The similarity between Christ and Socrates consists essentially in their dissimilarity. Just as philosophy begins with doubt, so also a life that may be called human begins with irony.”
On truth
“Seek first God's Kingdom, that is, become like the lilies and the birds, become perfectly silent — then shall the rest be added unto you.”
“The Sophist demonstrates that everything is true and nothing is true.”
On time
“What is asked of a man that he may be able to pray for his enemies? To pray for one's enemies is the hardest thing of all. That is why it exasperates us so much in our present day situation.”
“Concepts, like individuals, have their histories, and are just as incapable of withstanding the ravages of time as are individuals.”
On reflection
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”
On love
“Don't forget to love yourself.”
On presence
“There are many people who reach their conclusions about life like schoolboys; they cheat their master by copying the answer out of a book without having worked out the sum for themselves.”
On mind
“Father in heaven, when the thought of thee awakens in our soul, let it not waken as an agitated bird which flutters confusedly about, but as a child waking from sleep with a celestial smile.”
On self-mastery
“Irony limits, finitizes, and circumscribes and thereby yields truth, actuality, content; it disciplines and punishes and thereby yields balance and consistency.”
On wisdom
“The question is asked in ignorance, by one who does not even know what can have led him to ask it.”