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Soren Kierkegaard Quotes - Page 19

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If the ethical - that is, social morality- is the highest ... then no categories are needed other than the Greek philosophical categories.

If the ethical - that is, social morality- is the highest ... then no categories are needed other than the Greek philosophical categories.

Soren Kierkegaard
Philosophical, Greek, Morality
"Fear and Trembling". Book by Soren Kierkegaard, p. 55, 1843.

Far from idleness being the root of all evil, it is rather the only true good.

Soren Kierkegaard
Family, Work, Roots
Soren Kierkegaard (1946). “Either/or”

A poet is not an apostle; he drives out devils only by the power of the devil.

Soren Kierkegaard
Devil, Critical Thinking, Poet

Pleasure disappoints; possibility never.

Soren Kierkegaard
Pleasure, Possibility, Disappoint
Soren Kierkegaard (1959). “Either/ Or”

Faith is a marvel, and yet no human being is excluded from it; for that in which all human life is united is passion, and faith is a passion.

Soren Kierkegaard
Passion, Life Is, Human Life

To be a saint is to will the one thing.

Soren Kierkegaard
Saint, One Thing

But the life of freedom requires a beginning, and here a beginning is a resolution, and the resolution has its work and its pain-thus the beginning has its difficulty.

Soren Kierkegaard
Pain, Resolution, Difficulty

Of all ridiculous things the most ridiculous seems to me, to be busy — to be a man who is brisk about his food and his work. Therefore, whenever I see a fly settling, in the decisive moment, on the nose of such a person of affairs; or if he is spattered with mud from a carriage which drives past him in still greater haste; or the drawbridge opens up before him; or a tile falls down and knocks him dead, then I laugh heartily.

Soren Kierkegaard
Fall, Past, Men
"Either/Or". Book by Søren Kierkegaard, transl. in "Bulletin: Comparative literature series", Nr. 3, Texas University (1912), p. 45, 1843.

It is (to describe it figuratively) as if an author were to make a slip of the pen, and as if this clerical error became conscious of being such. Perhaps this was no error but in a far higher sense was an essential part of the whole exposition. It is, then, as if this clerical error were to revolt against the author, out of hatred for him, were to forbid him to correct it, and were to say, "No, I will not be erased, I will stand as a witness against thee, that thou art a very poor writer."

Soren Kierkegaard
Art, Errors, Hatred
Soren Kierkegaard (2013). “The Wisdom of Kierkegaard”, p.260, Simon and Schuster

In order to learn true humility (I use this expression to describe the state of mind under discussion), it is good for a person to withdraw from the turmoil of the world (we see that Christ withdrew when the people wanted to proclaim him king as well as when he had to walk the thorny path), for in life either the depressing or the elevating impression is too dominant for a true balance to come about. Here, of course, individuality is very decisive.

Soren Kierkegaard
Depressing, Kings, Humility
"Søren Kierkegaard's Journals and Papers: Autobiographical, 1829-1848". Book by Søren Kierkegaard and Gregor Malantschuk, p. 33, Journals 1A 68 (July 29, 1835), 1978.

Destroy your primitivity, and you will most probably get along well in the world, maybe achieve great success--but Eternity will reject you. Follow up your primitivity, and you will be shipwrecked in temporality, but accepted by Eternity.

Soren Kierkegaard
Rejects You, World, Eternity

No one may pride himself at being more than an individual, and no one despondently think that he is not an individual.

Soren Kierkegaard
Pride, Thinking, May
Soren Kierkegaard (2013). “Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing”, p.109, Simon and Schuster

To venture causes anxiety. Not to venture is to lose oneself.

Soren Kierkegaard
Anxiety, Venture, Causes

Just as in earthly life lovers long for the moment when they are able to breathe forth their love for each other, to let their souls blend in a soft whisper, so the mystic longs for the moment when in prayer he can, as it were, creep into God.

Soren Kierkegaard
Love, Prayer, Long

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.

Soren Kierkegaard
Freedom, Men, Liberty
Soren Kierkegaard (1946). “Either/or”

Doubt is thought's despair; despair is personality's doubt. . . . Doubt and despair . . . belong to completely different spheres; different sides of the soul are set in motion. . . . Despair is an expression of the total personality, doubt only of thought.

Soren Kierkegaard
Expression, Personality, Soul

I divide my time as follows: half the time I sleep, the other half I dream. I never dream when I sleep, for that would be a pity, for sleeping is the highest accomplishment of genius.

Soren Kierkegaard
Dream, Sleep, Insomnia
Soren Kierkegaard (1959). “Either/ Or”

...the reason for [this age's] anxiety and unrest is because in one direction, 'truth' increases in scope and quantity - via science and technology - while in the other, certainty and confidence steadily decline. Our age is a master in developing truths while being wholly indifferent to certitude. It lacks confidence in the good.

Soren Kierkegaard
Christian, Technology, One Direction

If a man wants to set up as an innkeeper and he does not succeed, it is not comic. If, on the contrary, a girl asks to be allowed to set up as a prostitute and she fails, as sometimes happens, it is comic.

Soren Kierkegaard
Girl, Men, Doe

At the bottom of enmity between strangers lies indifference.

Soren Kierkegaard
Lying, Enmity, Indifference

I would rather be a swineherd, understood by the swine, than a poet misunderstood by men.

Soren Kierkegaard
Men, Misunderstood, Poet
Soren Kierkegaard (1959). “Either/ Or”

Jurists say that a capital crime submerges all lesser crimes; and so it is with faith. Its absurdity makes all petty difficultiesvanish.

Soren Kierkegaard
Faith, Crime, Absurdity
Soren Kierkegaard (2017). “Philosophical Fragments”, p.67, Jovian Press

To the frivolous Christianity is certainly not glad tidings, for it wishes first of all to make them serious.

Soren Kierkegaard
Wish, Firsts, Serious

I have attacked no one as not being a Christian, I have condemned no one.

Soren Kierkegaard
Christian
"The Point of View of My Work as an Author". Book by Soren Kierkegaard, 1848, 1851, 1859.

The present state of the world and the whole of life is diseased. If I were a doctor and were asked for my advice, I should reply, 'Create silence'.

Soren Kierkegaard
Doctors, Silence, Advice

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