Quotes from Soren Kierkegaard
Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.
—Soren Kierkegaard
People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.
—Soren Kierkegaard
Love is all, it gives all, and it takes all.
—Soren Kierkegaard
Far from idleness being the root of all evil, it is rather the only true good.
—Soren Kierkegaard
Face the facts of being what you are, for that is what changes what you are.
—Soren Kierkegaard
And this is the simple truth — that to live is to feel oneself lost. He who accepts it has already begun to find himself, to be on firm ground. Instinctively, as do the shipwrecked, he will look around for something to which to cling, and that tragic, ruthless glance, absolutely sincere, because it is a question of his salvation, will cause him to bring order into the chaos of his life. These are the only genuine ideas; the ideas of the shipwrecked. All the rest is rhetoric, posturing, farce.
—Soren Kierkegaard
Twaddle, rubbish, and gossip is what people want, not action. . . . The secret of life is to chatter freely about all one wishes to do and how one is always being prevented — and then do nothing.
—Soren Kierkegaard
Love does not alter the beloved, it alters itself.
—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
Self-reliance is the only road to true freedom, and being one's own person is its ultimate reward.
—Soren Kierkegaard
To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily. Not to dare is to lose oneself.
—Soren Kierkegaard
Most men pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry past it.
—Soren Kierkegaard
Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.
—Soren Kierkegaard