Quotes from Soren Kierkegaard

Just as a physician might say that there is very likely not one single living human being who is completely healthy, so anyone who really knows mankind might say there is not one single living human being who does not…secretly harbor an unrest, an inner strife, a disharmony, an anxiety about an unknown something or something he does not even dare to try to know, an anxiety about some possibility in existence or an anxiety about himself…an anxiety he cannot explain.

for the paradox is that he as the individual puts himself in an absolute relation to the absolute.

Algo de un rey se encuentra en mi ser; pero tú no puedes siquiera imaginar cuál es mi reino.

Nobody knows more of the truth than what he is of the truth. To properly know the truth is to be in the truth; it is to have the truth for one's life. This always costs a struggle. Any other kind of knowledge is a falsification. In short, the truth, if it is really there, is a being, a life.

As the sea, when it lies calm and deeply transparent, yearns for heaven, so may the pure heart, when it is calm and deeply transparent, yearn for the Good.

he was a cithara-player, not a man.

el mundo entiende tan poco de entusiasmo como un financiero de caridad.

Courage he acquires by learning to fear the still more dreadful.

Ein Spießbürger ist, wer ein absolutes Verhältnis zu relativen Dingen hat.

Fortvivlelsens Misforhold er ikke et simpelt Misforhold, men et Misforhold i et Forhold, der forholder sig til sig selv, og er sat af et Andet, saa Misforholdet i hiint for sig værende Forhold tillige reflekterer sig uendeligt i Forholdet til den Magt, som satte det.

For it is great to give up one's wish, but it is greater to hold it fast after having given it up, it is great to grasp the eternal, but it is greater to hold fast to the temporal after having given it up.

No puedo evitar sonreírme cuando pienso la habilidad con la que sé pronunciar su nombre, ese nombre, en un momento decisivo.

si pudiera alguien demostrar que no hay que creer absolutamente nada, por causa de la posibilidad del engaño, yo puedo demostrar que hay que creerlo todo, por causa de la posibilidad del engaño.

La guerra y las epidemias ya no tienen efecto sobre los hombres, contra tales cosas ellos están armados por su insensibilidad espiritual.

Behind the world we live in, in the distant background, lies another world standing in roughly the same relation to the former as the stage one sometimes sees in the theatre behind the real stage stands to the latter.

Our age is essentially one of understanding and reflection, without passion, momentarily bursting into enthusiasm, and shrewdly relapsing into repose. ... There is no more action or decision in our day than there is perilous delight in swimming in shallow waters.

Nosotros los seres humanos tenemos un temor natural a equivocarnos cuando nos formamos una opinión demasiado buena acerca de un ser humano. En cambio, no tememos quizá al error cuando pensamos mal de otro ser humano...

Only some one who knows how to remain essentially silent can really talk -- and act essentially

Det er ganske sandt, hvad Philosophien siger, at Livet maa forstaaes baglænds. Men derover glemmer man den anden Sætning, at det maa leves forlænds. Hvilken Sætning, jo meer den gjennemtænkes, netop ender med, at Livet i Timeligheden aldrig ret bliver forstaaeligt, netop fordi jeg intet Øieblik kan faae fuldelig Ro til at indtage Stillingen: baglænds.

La angustia les resulta peligrosa a los hombres sin temple, y por eso la silencia, pero, pese a ello, renuncian a hablar de Abraham, y así lo hacen.

What we call worldliness simply consists of such people who, if one may so express it, pawn themselves to the world. They use their abilities, amass wealth, carry out worldly enterprises, make prudent calculations, etc., and perhaps are mentioned in history, but they are not themselves. In a spiritual sense they have no self.

People do not know what they ought to say but only that they must say something.

La mala conciencia, sin embargo, puede hacer interesante la existencia…

After my death, no one will find in my papers (this is my consolation) the least information about what has really filled my life, find the inscription in my innermost being which explains everything and what, more often than not, makes what the world would call trifles into, for me, events of immense importance, and which I too consider of no significance once I take away the secret note which explains it.