Søren Kierkegaard Quotes

“Above all, do not lose your desire to walk. Everyday, I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it. But by sitting still, and the more one sits still, the closer one comes to feeling ill. Thus if one just keeps on walking, everything will be all right.”

“Boredom is the root of all evil - the despairing refusal to be oneself.”

“Face the facts of being what you are, for that is what changes what you are.”

“How absurd men are! They never use the liberties they have, they demand those they do not have. They have freedom of thought, they demand freedom of speech.”

“How did I get into the world? Why was I not asked about it and why was I not informed of the rules and regulations but just thrust into the ranks as if I had been bought by a peddling shanghaier of human beings? How did I get involved in this big enterprise called actuality? Why should I be involved? Isn't it a matter of choice? And if I am compelled to be involved, where is the manager—I have something to say about this. Is there no manager? To whom shall I make my complaint?”

“I feel as if I were a piece in a game of chess, when my opponent says of it: That piece cannot be moved.”

“I stick my finger into existence and it smells of nothing.”

“It is impossible to exist without passion.”

“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.”

“It is the duty of the human understanding to understand that there are things which it cannot understand.”

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

“Leap of faith – yes, but only after reflection.”

“Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.”

“Life must be understood backward. But it must be lived forward.”

“Listen to the cry of a woman in labor at the hour of giving birth — look at the dying man’s struggle at his last extremity, and then tell me whether something that begins and ends thus could be intended for enjoyment.”

“Many of us pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that we hurry past it.”

“Marry, and you will regret it; don’t marry, you will also regret it; marry or don’t marry, you will regret it either way. Laugh at the world’s foolishness, you will regret it; weep over it, you will regret that too; laugh at the world’s foolishness or weep over it, you will regret both. Believe a woman, you will regret it; believe her not, you will also regret it… Hang yourself, you will regret it; do not hang yourself, and you will regret that too; hang yourself or don’t hang yourself, you’ll regret it either way; whether you hang yourself or do not hang yourself, you will regret both. This, gentlemen, is the essence of all philosophy.”

“Never cease loving a person, and never give up hope for him, for even the prodigal son who had fallen most low, could still be saved; the bitterest enemy and also he who was your friend could again be your friend; love that has grown cold can kindle.”

“On the secretly blushing cheek is reflected the glow of the heart.”

“Once you are born in this world you’re old enough to die.”

“People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid.”

“People understand me so poorly that they don't even understand my complaint about them not understanding me.”

“Take away paradox from the thinker and you have a professor.”

“The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.”

“The highest and most beautiful things in life are not to be heard about, nor read about, nor seen but, if one will, are to be lived.”

“The most common form of despair is not being who you are.”

“The most painful state of being is remembering the future, particularly the one you'll never have.”

“The only intelligent tactical response to life’s horror is to laugh defiantly at it.”

“The thing is to understand myself: the thing is to find a truth which is true for me, to find the idea for which I can live and die. That is what I now recognize as the most important thing.”

“The tyrant dies and his rule is over, the martyr dies and his rule begins.”