Søren Kierkegaard was a Danish philosopher, theologian, poet, social critic and religious author who lived in the 19th century. He is widely considered to be the first existentialist philosopher and is known for his influence on Christian existential theology. Kierkegaard's writings focused on topics such as truth, individual choice, faith, and the moral life, and he is widely considered to be one of the most influential thinkers of the 19th century.
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Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.
The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly. — Soren Kierkegaard
Our life always expresses the result of our dominant thoughts.
In a theatre it happened that a fire started off stage. The clown came out to tell the audience. They thought it was a joke and applauded. He told them again, and they became still more hilarious. This is the way, I suppose, that the world will be destroyed-amid the universal hilarity of wits and wags who think it is all a joke. — Soren Kierkegaard
Once you label me you negate me. — Soren Kierkegaard
Face the facts of being what you are, for that is what changes what you are. — Soren Kierkegaard
The greatest danger to Christianity is, I contend, not heresies, not heterodoxies, not atheists, not profane secularism - no, but the kind of orthodoxy which is cordial drivel, mediocrity served up sweet. There is nothing that so insidiously displaces the majestic as cordiality. — Soren Kierkegaard
To be a woman is something so strange, so confusing and so complicated that only a woman could put up with it. — Soren Kierkegaard
The highest and most beautiful things in life are not to be heard about, nor read about, nor seen but, if one will, are to be lived. — Soren Kierkegaard
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. — Soren Kierkegaard
The paradox is really the pathos of intellectual life and just as only great souls are exposed to passions it is only the great thinker who is exposed to what I call paradoxes, which are nothing else than grandiose thoughts in embryo. — Soren Kierkegaard
People understand me so poorly that they don't even understand my complaint about them not understanding me. — Soren Kierkegaard
To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily. Not to dare is to lose oneself. — Soren Kierkegaard
To cheat oneself out of love is the most terrible deception; it is an eternal loss for which there is no reparation, either in time or in eternity. — Soren Kierkegaard
Hope is passion for what is possible. — Soren Kierkegaard
The extreme rarity of transitional forms in the fossil record persists as the trade secret of paleontology. — Soren Kierkegaard
Not just in commerce but in the world of ideas too our age is putting on a veritable clearance sale. Everything can be had so dirt cheap that one begins to wonder whether in the end anyone will want to make a bid. — Soren Kierkegaard
It is so hard to believe because it is so hard to obey. — Soren Kierkegaard
Take a chance and you may lose. Take not a chance and you have lost already. — Soren Kierkegaard
Love is the expression of the one who loves, not of the one who is loved. Those who think they can love only the people they prefer do not love at all. Love discovers truths about individuals that others cannot see — Soren Kierkegaard
Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom. — Soren Kierkegaard
What is a poet? An unhappy person who conceals profound anguish in his heart but whose lips are so formed that as sighs and cries pass over them they sound like beautiful music. — Soren Kierkegaard
Father in Heaven! When the thought of thee wakes in our hearts let it not awaken like a frightened bird that flies about in dismay, but like a child waking from its sleep with a heavenly smile. — Soren Kierkegaard
Human justice is very prolix, and yet at times quite mediocre; divine justice is more concise and needs no information from the prosecution, no legal papers, no interrogation of witnesses, but makes the guilty one his own informer and helps him with eternity's memory. — Soren Kierkegaard
The more people who believe something, the more apt it is to be wrong. The person who's right often has to stand alone. — Soren Kierkegaard
If I am capable of grasping God objectively, I do not believe, but precisely because I cannot do this I must believe. — Soren Kierkegaard
Truth has always had many loud proclaimers, but the question is whether a person will in the deepest sense acknowledge the truth, allow it to permeate his whole being, accept all its consequences, and not have an emergency hiding place for himself and a Judas kiss for the consequence. — Soren Kierkegaard
The self-assured believer is a greater sinner in the eyes of God than the troubled disbeliever. — Soren Kierkegaard
Life is a mystery to be lived, not a problem to be solved. — Soren Kierkegaard
Happiness is the greatest hiding place for despair. — Soren Kierkegaard
Prayer does not change God, but it changes him who prays. — Soren Kierkegaard
Are you not aware that there comes a midnight hour when everyone must unmask... — Soren Kierkegaard
Man is spirit. But what is spirit? Spirit is the self. But what is the self? The self is a relation which relates itself to itself. — Soren Kierkegaard
Life has its own hidden forces which you can only discover by living. — Soren Kierkegaard
As my prayer became more attentive and inward, I had less and less to say. I finally became completely silent... This is how it is. To pray does not mean to listen to oneself speaking. Prayer involves becoming silent, and being silent, and waiting until God is heard. — Soren Kierkegaard
Confidence is the present tense of hope. — Soren Kierkegaard
Love is all, it gives all, and it takes all. — Soren Kierkegaard
The tyrant dies and his rule is over, the martyr dies and his rule begins. — Soren Kierkegaard
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
If I were to wish for anything, I should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of the potential, for the eye which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible. Pleasure disappoints, possibility never. And what wine is so sparkling, what so fragrant, what so intoxicating, as possibility! — Soren Kierkegaard
The door to happiness opens outward. — Soren Kierkegaard
A man who as a physical being is always turned toward the outside, thinking that his happiness lies outside him, finally turns inward and discovers that the source is within him. — Soren Kierkegaard
Idleness, we are accustomed to say, is the root of all evil. To prevent this evil, work is recommended.... Idleness as such is by no means a root of evil; on the contrary, it is truly a divine life, if one is not bored. — Soren Kierkegaard
...the greatest thing each person can do is to give himself to God utterly and unconditionally - weaknesses, fears, and all. For God loves obedience more than good intentions or second-best offerings, which are all too often made under the guise of weakness. — Soren Kierkegaard
O Luther, you had 95 theses . . . The matter is far more terrible-there is only one thesis. The Christianity of the New Testament does not exist at all. Here there is nothing to reform. — Soren Kierkegaard
Patience is necessary, and one cannot reap immediately where one has sown. — Soren Kierkegaard
If anyone on the verge of action should judge himself according to the outcome, he would never begin. Even though the result may gladden the whole world, that cannot help the hero; for he knows the result only when the whole thing is over, and that is not how he became a hero, but by virtue of the fact that he began. — Soren Kierkegaard
I see it all perfectly; there are two possible situations - one can either do this or that. My honest opinion and my friendly advice is this: do it or do not do it - you will regret both. — Soren Kierkegaard
Since boredom advances and boredom is the root of all evil, no wonder, then, that the world goes backwards, that evil spreads. This can be traced back to the very beginning of the world. The gods were bored; therefore they created human beings. — Soren Kierkegaard
Boredom is the root of all evil--the despairing refusal to be oneself. — Soren Kierkegaard
Never cease loving a person, and never give up hope for him, for even the prodigal son who had fallen most low, could still be saved; the bitterest enemy and also he who was your friend could again be your friend; love that has grown cold can kindle. — Soren Kierkegaard
The difference between a man who faces death for the sake of an idea and an imitator who goes in search of martyrdom is that whilst the former expresses his idea most fully in death it is the strange feeling of bitterness which comes from failure that the latter really enjoys; the former rejoices in his victory, the latter in his suffering. — Soren Kierkegaard
The more a person limits himself, the more resourceful he becomes. — Soren Kierkegaard
Do it or don't do it - you will regret both. — Soren Kierkegaard
I have only one confidant, and that is the silence of night. — Soren Kierkegaard
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. — Soren Kierkegaard
For love is exultant when it unites equals, but it is triumphant when it makes that which was unequal equal in love. — Soren Kierkegaard
The commandment is that you shall love, but when you understand life and yourself, then it is as if you should not need to be commanded, because to love human beings is still the only thing worth living for; without this life you really do not live. — Soren Kierkegaard
If I am capable of grasping God objectively, I do not believe, but precisely because I cannot do this I must believe. If I wish to preserve myself in faith I must constantly be intent upon holding fast the objective uncertainty so as to remain out upon the deep, over seventy thousand fathoms of water, still preserving my faith. — Soren Kierkegaard
Repetition is the reality and the seriousness of life. — Soren Kierkegaard
Comparison is the most dangerous acquaintance love can make. — Soren Kierkegaard
I do not care for anything. I do not care to ride, for the exercise is too violent. I do not care to walk, walking is too strenuous. I do not care to lie down, for I should either have to remain lying, and I do not care to do that, or I should have to get up again, and I do not care to do that either. Summa summarum: I do not care at all. — Soren Kierkegaard
Worldly wisdom thinks that love is a relationship between man and man. Christianity teaches that love is a relationship between man-God-man, that is, that God is the middle term. — Soren Kierkegaard
Geniuses are like thunderstorms. They go against the wind, terrify people, cleanse the air. — Soren Kierkegaard
It is very dangerous to go into eternity with possibilities which one has oneself prevented from becoming realities. A possibility is a hint from God. One must follow it. — Soren Kierkegaard
I feel as if I were a piece in a game of chess, when my opponent says of it: That piece cannot be moved. — Soren Kierkegaard
If anyone on the verge of action should judge himself according to the outcome, he would never begin. — Soren Kierkegaard
Wherever there is a crowd there is untruth. — Soren Kierkegaard
At the bottom of enmity between strangers lies indifference. — Soren Kierkegaard
You wanted God's ideas about what was best for you to coincide with your ideas, but you also wanted him to be the almighty Creator of heaven and earth so that he could properly fulfill your wish. And yet, if he were to share your ideas, he would cease to be the almighty Father. — Soren Kierkegaard
What if everything in the world were a misunderstanding, what if laughter were really tears? — Soren Kierkegaard
Deep within every man there lies the dread of being alone in the world, forgotten by God, overlooked among the tremendous household of millions and millions. — Soren Kierkegaard
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
Had I to carve an inscription on my tombstone I would ask for none other than "The Individual." — Soren Kierkegaard
A possibility is a hint from God. One must follow it. — Soren Kierkegaard
Listen to the cry of a woman in labor at the hour of giving birth - look at the dying man's struggle at his last extremity, and then tell me whether something that begins and ends thus could be intended for enjoyment. — Soren Kierkegaard
One must not think slightingly of the paradoxical…for the paradox is the source of the thinker’s passion, and the thinker without a paradox is like a lover without feeling: a paltry mediocrity. — Soren Kierkegaard
A genius may perhaps be a century ahead of his age and hence stands there as a paradox, but in the end, the race will assimilate what was once a paradox, so it is no longer paradoxical. — Soren Kierkegaard
God has given each of us our "marching order." Our purpose here on Earth is to find those orders and carry them out. Those orders acknowledge our special gifts. — Soren Kierkegaard
Trouble is the common denominator of living. It is the great equalizer. — Soren Kierkegaard
People commonly travel the world over to see rivers and mountains, new stars, garish birds, freak fish, grotesque breeds of human; they fall into an animal stupor that gapes at existence and they think they have seen something. — Soren Kierkegaard
I have just now come from a party where I was its life and soul; witticisms streamed from my lips, everyone laughed and admired me, but I went away - yes, the dash should be as long as the radius of the earth's orbit ——————————— and wanted to shoot myself. — Soren Kierkegaard
Don't forget to love yourself. — Soren Kierkegaard
The Bible is God's love letter to us — Soren Kierkegaard
The minority is always stronger than the majority, because the minority is generally formed by those who really have an opinion. — Soren Kierkegaard
However much one generation learns from another, it can never learn from its predecessor the genuinely human factor. In this respect every generation begins afresh. Thus no generation has learned from another how to love, no generation can begin other than at the beginning. — Soren Kierkegaard
It was not to save a nation that Abraham went to sacrifice Isaac, nor to appease angry gods... Then why does Abraham do it? For God's sake... He does it for the sake of God because God demands proof of his faith... He was not justified by being virtuous, but by being an individual submitted to God in faith. — Soren Kierkegaard
My life is absolutely meaningless. When I consider the different periods into which it falls, it seems like the word Schnur in the dictionary, which means in the first place a string, in the second, a daughter-in-law. The only thing lacking is that the word Schnur should mean in the third place a camel, in the fourth, a dust-brush. — Soren Kierkegaard
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
It belongs to the imperfection of everything human that man can only attain his desire by passing through its opposite. — Soren Kierkegaard
A good decision is our will to do everything we can within our power. It means to serve God with all we've got, be it little or much. Every person can do that. — Soren Kierkegaard
Take away paradox from the thinker and you have a professor. — Soren Kierkegaard
...Christ did not appoint professors, but followers. If Christianity ... is not reduplicated in the life of the person expounding it, then he does not expound Christianity, for Christianity is a message about living and can only be expounded by being realized in men's lives. — Soren Kierkegaard
Why I so much prefer autumn to spring is that in the autumn one looks at heaven--in the spring at the earth. — Soren Kierkegaard
A fire broke out backstage in a theatre. The clown came out to warn the public; they thought it was a joke and applauded. He repeated it; the acclaim was even greater. I think that's just how the world will come to an end: to the general applause of wits who believe it's a joke. — Soren Kierkegaard
Purity of heart is to will one thing. — Soren Kierkegaard
To stand on one leg and prove God's existence is a very different thing from going on one's knees and thanking him. — Soren Kierkegaard
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
Life Lessons by Soren Kierkegaard
Soren Kierkegaard encourages us to take responsibility for our own lives and to make our own decisions, rather than relying on the opinions of others.
He emphasizes the importance of living authentically and passionately, and encourages us to embrace our own individual truth.
He reminds us that life is precious and fleeting, and that we should make the most of our time here by living with purpose and intention.
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