Quotes About Existence

Søren Kierkegaard

Numbers are the most dangerous of all illusions

I will say that this is an adventure that every human being must go through – to learn to be anxious…Whoever has learned to be anxious in the right way has learned the ultimate.

How then did Abraham exist? He believed. This is the paradox which keeps him upon the sheer edge and which he cannot make clear to any other person, for the paradox is that he as the individual puts himself in an absolute relation to the Absolute.

Wiederholung und Erinnerung sind die gleiche Bewegung, nur in entgegengesetzter Richtung; denn dasjenige, woran man sich erinnert, ist gewesen, wird rückwärts wiederholt, während die eigentliche Wiederholung eine Erinnerung in vorwärtiger Richtung ist.

Remember, one lives only once; if it is neglected, if you do not come to suffer, if you avoid it—it is eternally irreparable

Livet forstås baglæns, men må leves forlæns.

Järjestelmään liittyy sulkeutuvuus, mutta olemassaolo on jotakin täsmälleen päinvastaista.

Der Freiheit Inhalt, intellektuell gesehen, ist Wahrheit, und die Wahrheit macht den Menschen frei. Eben darum aber ist die Wahrheit ein Werk der Freiheit dergestalt, dass sie fort und fort die Wahrheit erzeugt.

Het is allemaal waar wat de filosofie zegt: het leven moet achterwaarts worden begrepen. Maar dan vergeet men de tweede zin: dat het voorwaarts moet worden geleefd.

El prójimo es la completamente incognoscible diversidad entre ser humano y ser humano, o bien es la eterna igualdad ante Dios.

Het is beslist waar, zoals de filosofen zeggen, dat het leven naar achteren moet worden begrepen. Maar ze vergeten de andere kwestie, dat het leven naar voren moet worden geleefd." Origineel in het Deens: "Det er ganske sandt, hvad Philosophien siger, at Livet maa forstaaes baglaends. Men derover glemmer man den anden Saetning, at det maa leves forlaends.

Wat voor goed zou het me doen als de waarheid voor me stond, koud en naakt, en er niet om gaf of ze door mij werd herkend of niet.

As soon as the single individual asserts himself in his singularity before the universal, he sins; and only by acknowledging this can he be reconciled again with the universal

Umorul are un scepticism mult mai profund decât ironia, fiindc? în sfera lui accentul cade asupra p?catului, nu asupra finitudinii. Nu-ÅŸi g?seÅŸte liniÅŸtea doar f?cându-l pe om s? fie om, ci f?cându-l pe om s? fie Dumnezeu-om.

Indivizii nu erau altceva pentru el decât niÅŸte stimulente;ÅŸi îndat? ce acÅ£iunea provocat? de ei se consuma,el se debarasa de aceÅŸtia.

My life achievement amounts to nothing at all, a mood, a single color

El hombre es una síntesis de lo infinito y lo finito, de lo temporal y lo eterno, de libertad y necesidad; en resumen: es una síntesis. Una síntesis es una relación entre dos factores. Considerado desde este ángulo el hombre todavía no es un yo.»

He fears all worldly setback for there is nothing eternal in him.

What matters is to find my purpose, to see what it really is that God wills that I shall do; the crucial thing is to find a truth that is truth for me, to find the idea for which I am willing to live and die

porque es grande renunciar al propio deseo, pero aún es más grande seguir en lo temporal, cuando ya se ha renunciado a ello.

If a human being did not have an eternal consciousness, if underlying everything there were only a wild, fermenting power that writhing in dark passions produced everything, be it significant or insignificant, if a vast, never appeased emptiness hid beneath everything, what would life be then but despair?

Mine': what does this word mean? Not what belongs to me, but what I belong to, what contains my whole being, which is mine only so far as I belong to it. My God is not the God that belongs to me, but the God to whom I belong; and so, too, when I say my native land, my home, my calling, my longing, my hope. If there had been no immortality before, this thought that I am yours would be a breach of the normal course of nature." —Johannes the Seducer, from_Either/Or_

To be a man, to live here in this world, is to be put on trial