Søren Kierkegaard quotes (showing 1-30 of 723)

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”

― Søren Kierkegaard
tags: future, life, past, reflection, understanding
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“The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who
prays.”
― Søren Kierkegaard
tags: faith, god, prayer
3450 likes
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“People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they
seldom use.”
― Søren Kierkegaard
tags: civil-rights, free-speech, free-will, freedom, intelligence, liberty, stupidity
3135 likes
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“Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.”
― Søren Kierkegaard, The Concept of Anxiety: A Simple Psychologically Orienting
Deliberation on the Dogmatic Issue of Hereditary Sin
tags: anxiety, dizziness, fear, freedom, life
2472 likes
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“People understand me so poorly that they don't even understand my complaint about them
not understanding me.”
― Søren Kierkegaard, The Journals of Kierkegaard
tags: complaint, misunderstood
1738 likes
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“Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.”
― Søren Kierkegaard
tags: life, reality
1517 likes
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“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to
believe what is true.”
― Søren Kierkegaard
tags: blindness, fools, self-deception, truth, willful-blindness, willful-ignorance
1386 likes
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“It is perfectly true, as philosophers say, that life must be understood backwards. But they
forget the other proposition, that it must be lived forwards.”
― Søren Kierkegaard
1223 likes
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“The most common form of despair is not being who you are.”
― Søren Kierkegaard
tags: self-betrayal, truth
1129 likes
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“What labels me, negates me.”
― Søren Kierkegaard
926 likes
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“The greatest hazard of all, losing one’s self, can occur very quietly in the world, as if it were
nothing at all. No other loss can occur so quietly; any other loss - an arm, a leg, five dollars, a
wife, etc. - is sure to be noticed.”
― Søren Kierkegaard, The Sickness Unto Death: A Christian Psychological Exposition for
Upbuilding and Awakening
tags: despair, self
926 likes
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“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.”
― Søren Kierkegaard, Either/Or: A Fragment of Life
tags: life, regret
883 likes
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“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.”
― Søren Kierkegaard, Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard
tags: bible, christianity
841 likes
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“The most painful state of being is remembering the future, particularly the one you'll never
have.”
― Søren Kierkegaard
815 likes
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“In addition to my other numerous acquaintances, I have one more intimate confidant… My
depression is the most faithful mistress I have known — no wonder, then, that I return the
love.”
― Søren Kierkegaard, Either/Or: A Fragment of Life
tags: depression
738 likes
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“What is a poet? An unhappy man who hides deep anguish in his heart, but whose lips are so
formed that when the sigh and cry pass through them, it sounds like lovely music.... And
people flock around the poet and say: 'Sing again soon' - that is, 'May new sufferings torment
your soul but your lips be fashioned as before, for the cry would only frighten us, but the
music, that is blissful.”
― Søren Kierkegaard, Either/Or
tags: poets
655 likes
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“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”
― Søren Kierkegaard
624 likes
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“Once you label me you negate me.”
― Søren Kierkegaard
tags: labels, stereotypes
591 likes
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“What if everything in the world were a misunderstanding, what if laughter were really
tears?”
― Søren Kierkegaard
tags: melancholy
542 likes
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“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 general applause from wits who believe it's a joke.”
― Søren Kierkegaard, Either/Or, Part I
tags: humor
532 likes
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“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