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Soren Kierkegaard Quotes - Page 3

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Life is lived forwards, but understood backwards.

Life is lived forwards, but understood backwards.

Soren Kierkegaard
Life Is, Backwards, Understood

A man may perform astonishing feats and comprehend a vast amount of knowledge, and yet have no understanding of himself. But suffering directs a man to look within. If it succeeds, then there, within him, is the beginning of his learning.

Soren Kierkegaard
Men, Understanding, Suffering

To love another person is to help them love God.

Soren Kierkegaard
Love, Life, Helping

Do not interrupt the flight of your soul; do not distress what is best in you; do not enfeeble your spirit with half wishes and half thoughts. Ask yourself and keep on asking until you find the answer, for one may have known something many times, acknowledged it; one may have willed something many times, attempted it - and yet, only the deep inner motion, only the heart's indescribable emotion, only that will convince you that what you have acknowledged belongs to you, that no power can take it from you - for only the truth that builds up is truth for you.

Soren Kierkegaard
Heart, Soul, Wish
"Ethics and Aesthetics in European Modernist Literature". Book by D.R. Ellison, p.51, 2001.

Most people are subjective toward themselves and objective toward all others, frightfully objective sometimes--but the task is precisely to be objective toward oneself and subjective toward all others.

Soren Kierkegaard
People, Tasks, Sometimes

The daily press is the evil principle of the modern world, and time will only serve to disclose this fact with greater and greater clearness. The capacity of the newspaper for degeneration is sophistically without limit, since it can always sink lower and lower in its choice of readers. At last it will stir up all those dregs of humanity which no state or government can control.

Soren Kierkegaard
Government, Evil, Choices

If you think you understand, it isn't God.

Soren Kierkegaard
Thinking, Ifs

The tyrant dies and his rule is over, the martyr dies and his rule begins.

Soren Kierkegaard
Death, Tyrants, Political
Soren Kierkegaard (2015). “Papers and Journals”, p.370, Penguin UK

Truth always rests with the minority, and the minority is always stronger than the majority, because the minority is generally formed by those who really have an opinion, while the strength of a majority is illusory, formed by the gangs who have no opinion - and who, therefore, in the next instant (when it is evident that the minority is the stronger) assume its opinion ... while Truth again reverts to a new minority.

Soren Kierkegaard
Workout, Truth, Inspiration
"The Diary of Soren Kierkegaard" by Soren Kierkegaard, pt. 5, sct. 3, no 128, 1850.

The truly simple way of presenting Christianity is to do it.

Soren Kierkegaard
Simple, Way, Christianity

It's better to get lost in the passion than to lose the passion

Soren Kierkegaard
Passion, Lost, Loses

And this is one of the most crucial definitions for the whole of Christianity; that the opposite of sin is not virtue but faith.

Soren Kierkegaard
Opposites, Definitions, Sin
Soren Kierkegaard (2004). “The Sickness Unto Death: A Christian Psychological Exposition of Edification and Awakening by Anti-Climacus”, p.111, Penguin UK

Are you not aware that there comes a midnight hour when everyone must unmask...

Soren Kierkegaard
Midnight, Hours

...the person who surrenders absolutely to God, with no reservations, is absolutely safe. From this safe hiding-place he can see the devil , but the devil cannot see him.

Soren Kierkegaard
Christian, Devil, Safe

Where am I? Who am I? How did I come to be here? What is this thing called the world? How did I come into the world? Why was I not consulted? And If I am compelled to take part in it, where is the director? I want to see him.

Soren Kierkegaard
Philosophy, Umpires, Directors

All the shrewdness of 'man' seeks one thing: to be able to live without responsibility.

Soren Kierkegaard
Responsibility, Men, Shrewdness
Soren Kierkegaard (1959). “Attack Upon 'Christendom'”

The difference between an admirer and a follower still remains, no matter where you are. The admirer never makes any true sacrifices. He always plays it safe. Though in words, phrases, songs, he is inexhaustible about how highly he prizes Christ, he renounces nothing, gives up nothing, will not reconstruct his life, will not be what he admires, and will not let his life express what it is he supposedly admires.

Soren Kierkegaard
Song, Giving Up, Sacrifice

How did I get into the world? Why was I not asked about it and why was I not informed of the rules and regulations but just thrust into the ranks as if I had been bought by a peddling shanghaier of human beings? How did I get involved in this big enterprise called actuality? Why should I be involved? Isn't it a matter of choice? And if I am compelled to be involved, where is the manager—I have something to say about this. Is there no manager? To whom shall I make my complaint?

Soren Kierkegaard
Choices, Rules And Regulations, World

The spiritual differs from the religious in being able to endure isolation. The rank of a spiritual person is proportionate to his strength for enduring isolation, whereas we religious people are constantly in need of 'the others,' the herd. We religious folks die, or despair, if we are not reassured by being in the assembly, of the same opinion as the congregation, and so on. But the Christianity of the New Testament is precisely related to the isolation of the spiritual man.

Soren Kierkegaard
Spiritual, Religious, Men

A road well begun is the battle half won. The important thing is to make a beginning and get under way.

Soren Kierkegaard
Important, Battle, Half

There is nothing with which every man is so afraid as getting to know how enormously much he is capable of doing and becoming.

Soren Kierkegaard
Courage, Men, Getting High

Which is more difficult, to awaken one who sleeps or to awaken one who, awake, dreams that he is awake?

Soren Kierkegaard
Dream, Sleep, Difficult

In the eyes of God, the infinite spirit, all the millions that have lived and now live do not make a crowd. He only sees each individual

Soren Kierkegaard
Eye, Crowds, Spirit

If a man cannot forget, he will never amount to much.

Soren Kierkegaard
Men, Forget, Ifs
Soren Kierkegaard (1946). “Either/or”

Only the noble of heart are called to difficulty.

Soren Kierkegaard
Heart, Noble, Difficulty

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