Søren Kierkegaard Quotes
- The tyrant dies and his rule is over; the martyr dies and his rule begins. - View Quote Details on The tyrant dies and his rule is over; the martyr…
- If I have ventured wrongly, very well, life then helps me with its penalty. But if I haven’t ventured at all, who helps me then? (pp. 64 - 65) - View Quote Details on If I have ventured wrongly, very well, life then helps…
- Job endured everything — until his friends came to comfort him, then he grew impatient. - View Quote Details on Job endured everything — until his friends came to comfort…
- If sin is ignorance, then sin does not really exist, for sin is precisely consciousness; if sin is ignorance of what is right, and one then does what is wrong because one does not know what is right, then no sin has occurred. (p. 121) - View Quote Details on If sin is ignorance, then sin does not really exist,…
- Which is more difficult, to awaken one who sleeps or to awaken one who, awake, dreams that he is awake? - View Quote Details on Which is more difficult, to awaken one who sleeps or…
- Above all do not forget your duty to love yourself. - View Quote Details on Above all do not forget your duty to love yourself.
- Out of love, God becomes man. He says: “See, here is what it is to be a human being.” (p. 161) - View Quote Details on Out of love, God becomes man. He says: “See, here…
- To be a teacher does not mean simply to affirm that such a thing is so, or to deliver a lecture, etc. No, to be a teacher in the right sense is to be a learner. Instruction begins when you, the teacher, learn from the learner, put yourself in his place so that you may understand what he understands and the way he understands it. - View Quote Details on To be a teacher does not mean simply to affirm…
- Irony is a qualification of subjectivity. - View Quote Details on Irony is a qualification of subjectivity.
- When whatever causes person to despair occurs, it is immediately evident that he has been in despair his whole life. (p. 54) - View Quote Details on When whatever causes person to despair occurs, it is immediately…
- The world has generally no understanding of what is truly horrifying. The despair that not only does not cause any inconvenience in life, but makes life convenient and comfortable, is naturally enough in no way regarded as despair. That this is the worldly view is evident, among all things, from nearly all the proverbs, which are nothing but rules of prudence. (p. 64) - View Quote Details on The world has generally no understanding of what is truly…
- Leap of faith. - View Quote Details on Leap of faith.
- I must find a truth that is true for me. - View Quote Details on I must find a truth that is true for me.
- Sin is in itself separation from the good, but despair over sin is separation a second time. (p. 142) - View Quote Details on Sin is in itself separation from the good, but despair…
- The more one suffers, the more, I believe, has one a sense for the comic. It is only by the deepest suffering that one acquires true authority in the use of the comic, an authority which by one word transforms as by magic the reasonable creature one calls man into a caricature. - View Quote Details on The more one suffers, the more, I believe, has one…
- What feelings, understanding and will a person has depends in the last resort upon what imagination he has — how he represents himself to himself, that is, upon imagination. (pp. 60 - 61) - View Quote Details on What feelings, understanding and will a person has depends in…
- What we call worldliness simply consists of such people who, if one may so express it, pawn themselves to the world. (p. 65) - View Quote Details on What we call worldliness simply consists of such people who,…
- Sin, however common to all, does not gather men together into a common concept, into an association or partnership (no more than out in the graveyard the multitude of the dead form a society), but splits people up into individuals and fastens hold of every individual as a sinner. (p. 153) - View Quote Details on Sin, however common to all, does not gather men together…
- What the age needs is not a genius — it has had geniuses enough, but a martyr, who in order to teach men to obey would himself be obedient unto death. What the age needs is awakening. And therefore someday, not only my writings but my whole life, all the intriguing mystery of the machine will be studied and studied. I never forget how God helps me and it is therefore my last wish that everything may be to his honour. - View Quote Details on What the age needs is not a genius — it…
- 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. - View Quote Details on Seek first God’s Kingdom, that is, become like the lilies…
- By far, the most profound thinker of the nineteenth century. - View Quote Details on By far, the most profound thinker of the nineteenth century.
- People think the world needs a republic, and they think it needs a new social order, and a new religion, but it never occurs to anyone that what the world really needs, confused as it is by much learning, is a new Socrates. (p. 124) - View Quote Details on People think the world needs a republic, and they think…
- A person in despair wants despairingly to be himself. But surely if he wants despairingly to be himself, he cannot want to be rid of himself. Yes, or so it seems. But closer observation reveals the contradiction to be still the same. The self which, in his despair, he wants to be is a self he is not (indeed, to want to be the self he truly is, is the very opposite of despair). (p. 50) - View Quote Details on A person in despair wants despairingly to be himself. But…
- Responsibility is the choice of freedom and there is no contraception. - View Quote Details on Responsibility is the choice of freedom and there is no…
- Someone in despair despairs over something. So, for a moment, it seems, but only for a moment. That same instant the true despair shows itself, or despair in its true guise. In despairing over something he was really despairing over himself, and he wants now to be rid of himself. (p. 49) - View Quote Details on Someone in despair despairs over something. So, for a moment,…
- 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. - View Quote Details on Since my earliest childhood a barb of sorrow has lodged…
- It is the duty of the human understanding to understand that there are things which it cannot understand, and what those things are. Human understanding has vulgarly occupied itself with nothing but understanding, but if it would only take the trouble to understand itself at the same time it would simply have to posit the paradox. - View Quote Details on It is the duty of the human understanding to understand…
- The initial expression of defiance is precisely despair over one’s weakness. (p. 97) - View Quote Details on The initial expression of defiance is precisely despair over one’s…
- Spiritual love, on the other hand, takes away from myself all natural determinants and all self-love. Therefore love for my neighbor cannot make me one with the neighbor in a united self. Love to one’s neighbor is love between two individual beings, each eternally qualified as spirit. - View Quote Details on Spiritual love, on the other hand, takes away from myself…
- What a dangerous objection it would be against Christianity, therefore, if paganism had a definition of sin which Christianity had to acknowledge was correct. (p. 122) - View Quote Details on What a dangerous objection it would be against Christianity, therefore,…
- The intoxication of self-feeling is the most intense, and the height of this intoxication is most admired. Love and friendship are the very height of self-feeling, the I intoxicated in the other-I. The more securely the two I’s come together to become one I, the more this united I selfishly cuts itself off from all others. - View Quote Details on The intoxication of self-feeling is the most intense, and the…
- It is human self-renunciation when a man denies himself and the world opens up to him. But it is Christian self-renunciation when a denies himself and, because the world precisely for this shuts itself up to him, he must as one thrust out by the world seek God’s confidence. The double-danger lies precisely in meeting opposition there where he had expected to find support, and he has to turn about twice; whereas the merely human self-resignation turns once. - View Quote Details on It is human self-renunciation when a man denies himself and…
- As a thorough Christian — or, as he would have put it, infinitely interested in becoming one — Søren Kierkegaard addressed himself neither to Jews nor to Judaism. But they have overheard him. In part because they could not help it… Jews are well advised to be on the alert for what they can learn not only about him but about themselves also. - View Quote Details on As a thorough Christian — or, as he would have…
- This fact, that the opposite of sin is by no means virtue, has been overlooked. The latter is partly a pagan view, which is content with a merely human standard, and which for that very reason does not know what sin is, that all sin is before God. No, the opposite of sin is faith. (pp. 114 - 115) - View Quote Details on This fact, that the opposite of sin is by no…
About Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Aabye Kierkegaard (5 May 1813 - 11 November 1855 ) Danish philosopher and theologian, considered to be a founder of existentialist thought. See also: Fear and Trembling Either/Or Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments The Sickness Unto Death .
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