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Soren Kierkegaard Quotes - Page 9

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There is nothing everyone is so afraid of as being told how vastly much he is capable of. You are capable of - do you want to know? - you are capable of living in poverty; you are capable of standing almost any kind of

There is nothing everyone is so afraid of as being told how vastly much he is capable of. You are capable of - do you want to know? - you are capable of living in poverty; you are capable of standing almost any kind of maltreatment, abuse, etc. But you do not wish to know about it, isn't that so? You would be furious with him who told you so, and only call that person your friend who bolsters you in saying: 'No, this I cannot bear, this is beyond my strength, etc.

Soren Kierkegaard
Abuse, Wish, Bears

With respect to physical existence, one needs little, and to the degree that one needs less, the more perfect one is.

Soren Kierkegaard
Perfect One, Degrees, Needs

No time of life is so beautiful as the early days of love, when with every meeting, every glance, one fetches something new home to rejoice over.

Soren Kierkegaard
Love, Life, Beautiful
Soren Kierkegaard (1946). “Either/or”

I stick my finger into existence.. it smells of nothing. Where am I? Who am I? What is this thing called the world? What does this word mean?

Soren Kierkegaard
Mean, Smell, Doe

If I am capable of grasping God objectively, I do not believe, but precisely because I cannot do this I must believe.

Soren Kierkegaard
God, Believe, Grasping

It is impossible to exist without passion

Soren Kierkegaard
Passion, Impossible

Only when it is a duty to love, only then is love eternally and happily secured against despair.

Soren Kierkegaard
Despair, Duty, Secured

This, then, is the ultimate paradox of thought: to want to discover something that thought itself cannot think.

Soren Kierkegaard
Thinking, Want, Paradox

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.

Soren Kierkegaard
Birthday, Dream, Time
Soren Kierkegaard (1946). “Either/or”

It is easy to see, though it scarcely needs to be pointed out, since it is involved in the fact that Reason is set aside, that faith is not a form of knowledge; for all knowledge is either a knowledge of the eternal, excluding the temporal and historical as indifferent, or it is pure historical knowledge. No knowledge can have for its object the absurdity that the eternal is the historical.

Soren Kierkegaard
Faith, Knowledge, Historical

Don't you know that a midnight hour comes when everyone has to take off his mask? Do you think life always lets itself be trifled with? Do you think you can sneak off a little before midnight to escape this?

Soren Kierkegaard
Thinking, Midnight, Littles

Pain reconciles one to existence. Infinite resignation is that shirt in the old fable. The thread is spun with tears, bleached by tears, the shirt sewn in tears, but then it also gives better protection than iron. The secret in life is that everyone must sew it for himself.

Soren Kierkegaard
Pain, Iron, Giving

God is present in the moment of choice, not in order to watch but in order to be chosen. Therefore, each person must choose. Terrible is the battle, in a person's innermost being, between God and the world. The crowning risk involved lies in the possession of choice.

Soren Kierkegaard
Christian, Lying, Order

Nothing is as heady as the wine of possibility

Soren Kierkegaard
Wine, Possibility

Genius, like a thunderstorm, comes up against the wind.

Soren Kierkegaard
Wind, Genius, Thunderstorm

Christendom has done away with Christianity without being quite aware of it.

Soren Kierkegaard
Done, Christianity, Awareness

... all comparisons injure.

Soren Kierkegaard
Comparison

A man who cannot seduce men cannot save them either.

Soren Kierkegaard
Men, Seducing

It is a wonderful thing to see a first-rate philosopher at prayer. Tough-minded thinking and tenderhearted reverence are friends, not enemies. We have for too long separated the head from the heart, and we are the lesser for it. We love God with the mind and we love God with the heart. In reality, we are descending with the mind into the heart and there standing before God in ceaseless wonder and endless praise. As the mind and the heart work in concert, a kind of loving rationality pervades all we say and do. This brings unity to us and glory to God.

Soren Kierkegaard
Prayer, Heart, Reality

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.

Soren Kierkegaard
Bird, Lilies, Kingdoms

Men who not religious or artists are fools.

Soren Kierkegaard
Religious, Artist, Men

I would have perished had I not perished.

Soren Kierkegaard

The highest of all is not to understand the highest but to act upon it.

Soren Kierkegaard
Highest

Adversity not only draws people together, but brings forth that beautiful inward friendship.

Soren Kierkegaard
Beautiful, Adversity, People

What a misfortune to be a woman! And yet, the worst misfortune is not to understand what a misfortune it is.

Soren Kierkegaard
Worst, Misfortunes

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