Søren Kierkegaard quotes

Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards. (Søren Kierkegaard)
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. View quote
Søren Kierkegaard
People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use. View quote
Søren Kierkegaard
Most men pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry past it. View quote
Søren Kierkegaard
Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom. View quote
Søren 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. View quote
Søren Kierkegaard
The tyrant dies and his rule is over, the martyr dies and his rule begins. View quote
Søren Kierkegaard
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. View quote
Søren 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. View quote
Søren Kierkegaard
Far from idleness being the root of all evil, it is rather the only true good. View quote
Søren 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. (Søren Kierkegaard)
It belongs to the imperfection of everything human that man can only attain his desire by passing through its opposite. View quote
Søren 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. View quote
Søren 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. View quote
Søren Kierkegaard
It is so hard to believe because it is so hard to obey. View quote
Søren Kierkegaard
Once you label me you negate me. View quote
Søren Kierkegaard
Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced. View quote
Søren Kierkegaard
The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays. View quote
Søren 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. View quote
Søren 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. View quote
Søren 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. (Søren Kierkegaard)
Take away paradox from the thinker and you have a professor. View quote
Søren Kierkegaard
Life has its own hidden forces which you can only discover by living. View quote
Søren Kierkegaard
I begin with the principle that all men are bores. Surely no one will prove himself so great a bore as to contradict me in this. View quote
Søren Kierkegaard
The truth is a snare: you cannot have it, without being caught. You cannot have the truth in such a way that you catch it, but only in such a way that it catches you. View quote
Søren Kierkegaard