Quotes from Soren Kierkegaard

Abraham believed. He did not believe that some day he would be blessed in the beyond, but that he would be happy here in the world.

Si quien va a obrar pretende juzgarse antes a sí mismo por el resultado, no comenzará nunca.

the genuinely humane no generation learns from the foregoing

Are we so thoroughly convinced that we have attained the highest point that there is nothing left for us but to piously make ourselves believe that we have not got so far — just for the sake of having something left to occupy our time? Is it such a self-deception the present generation has need of, does it need to be trained to virtuosity in self-deception, or is it not rather sufficiently perfected already in the art of deceiving itself?

C?s?toriÅ£i-v? ÅŸi o s? regretaÅ£i;nu v? c?s?toriÅ£i,ÅŸi o s? regretaÅ£i;c? faceÅ£i una sau alta,le veÅ£i regreta în aceeaÅŸi m?sur?.RâdeÅ£i de nebuniile acestei lumi,ÅŸi veÅ£i regreta;plângeÅ£i-le,ÅŸi veÅ£i regreta;c? veÅ£i râde sau veÅ£i plânge,veÅ£i regreta în aceeaÅŸi m?sur?.

That there may be some who need coercion, who if given free rein would riot in selfish pleasure like unbridled beasts, is no doubt true, but one should show precisely by the fact that one knows how to speak with fear and trembling that one is not of their number.

la fe resulta ser por un lado la expresión más alta del egoísmo (lleva a cabo lo terrible por amor a sí mismo), y por otro, la más absoluta expresión de la entrega, pues lleva a cabo la acción por amor a Dios. La fe nunca puede mediar en lo general; de hacerlo quedaría anulada. La fe consiste en esa paradoja, y el Particular no logrará nunca que otro le comprenda.

From this, however, it does not follow that the ethical is to be abolished, but it acquires an entirely different expression, the paradoxical expression – that, for example, love to God may cause the knight of faith to give his love to his neighbor the opposite expression to that which, ethically speaking, is required by duty. If

Ningún caballero de la fe puede ayudar a otro. O bien se convierte el mismo Particular en caballero de la fe, pues cargó con la paradoja, o bien no llega nunca a serlo. En esa esfera resulta impensable cualquier compañerismo.

Dean Bloch introduces the article he writes against me in No. 94 of this newspaper by referring to another article written against me earlier in the same paper by an anonymous author, whose article Dean Bloch (an obsequious Basil) recognizes appreciatively in the strongest and most deferential terms as what might be called a leading article. And there is something in that, for it leads astray

What is education? I should suppose that education was the curriculum one had to run through in order to catch up with oneself

the fact that he offered his best. What they leave out of Abraham's history is dread; for to money I have no ethical obligation, but to the son the father has the highest and most sacred obligation. Dread, however, is a perilous thing for effeminate natures, hence they forget it, and in spite of that they want to talk about Abraham.

La hora del dolor puede volvernos altivos, si es que no nos quiebra: en ella, nada se ha quebrado…

To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily. Not to dare is to lose oneself.

This is the miracle of life: that each person who heeds him or herself knows what no scientist can ever know: who he or she is.

It is perhaps the misfortune of my life that I am interested in far too much but not decisively in any one thing; all my interests are not subordinated in one but stand on an equal footing.

...he who always hopes for the best becomes old, deceived by life, and he who is always prepared for the worst becomes old prematurely; but he who has faith, retains eternal youth.

A 'no' does not hide anything, but a 'yes' very easily becomes a deception.

It is very important in life to know when your cue comes.

Faith is a marvel, and yet no human being is excluded from it; for that in which all human life is united is passion, and faith is a passion.

Marriage brings one into fatal connection with custom and tradition, and traditions and customs are like the wind and weather, altogether incalculable.

Dread is a sympathetic antipathy and an antipathetic sympathy.

The object of (Christian) faith is not the teaching but the Teacher.

Instruction begins when you, the teacher, learn from the learner; put yourself in his place so that you may understand . . . what he learns and the way he understands it.