If a man cannot forget, he will never amount to much. Soren Kierkegaard More Quotes by Soren Kierkegaard More Quotes From Soren Kierkegaard Maturity consists in the discovery that there comes a critical moment where everything is reversed, after which the point becomes to understand more and more that there is something which cannot be understood. Soren Kierkegaard critical-momentsmaturitydiscovery The gods were bored and so they created man. Adam was bored because he was alone, so Eve was created. Thus boredom entered the world, and increased in proportion to the increase in population. Adam was bored alone, then Adam and Eve were bored together; them Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel were bored en famille; then the population of the world increased, and the people were bored en masse. Soren Kierkegaard boredommenpeople My life is absolutely meaningless. When I consider the different periods into which it falls, it seems like the word Schnur in the dictionary, which means in the first place a string, in the second, a daughter-in-law. The only thing lacking is that the word Schnur should mean in the third place a camel, in the fourth, a dust-brush. Soren Kierkegaard daughtermeanfall Adversity not only draws people together, but brings forth that beautiful inward friendship. Soren Kierkegaard adversitybeautifulpeople The ever increasing intensity of despair depends upon the degree of consciousness or is proportionate to this increase: the greater the degree of consciousness, the more intensive the despair. This is everywhere apparent, most clearly in despair at its maximum and minimum. The devil's despair is the most intensive despair, for the devil is sheer spirit and hence unqualified consciousness and transparency; there is no obscurity in the devil that could serve as a mitigating excuse. Therefore, his despair is the most absolute defiance. . . . Soren Kierkegaard despairdevildegrees Boredom rests upon the nothingness that winds its way through existence; its giddiness, like that which comes from gazing down into an infinite abyss, is infinite. Soren Kierkegaard boredomblessingwind Out of love, God becomes man. He says: 'See, here is what it is to be a human being'. Soren Kierkegaard humansgod-lovemen Every mental act is composed of doubt and belief, but it is belief that is the positive, it is belief that sustains thought and holds the world together. Soren Kierkegaard doubttogetherworld ...Christ did not appoint professors, but followers. If Christianity ... is not reduplicated in the life of the person expounding it, then he does not expound Christianity, for Christianity is a message about living and can only be expounded by being realized in men's lives. Soren Kierkegaard being-realmessagesmen Human justice is very prolix, and yet at times quite mediocre; divine justice is more concise and needs no information from the prosecution, no legal papers, no interrogation of witnesses, but makes the guilty one his own informer and helps him with eternity's memory. Soren Kierkegaard divine-justicepapermemories The melancholy have the best sense of the comic, the opulent often the best sense of the rustic, the dissolute often the best sense of the moral, and the doubter often the best sense of the religious. Soren Kierkegaard atheismdoubtersreligious People generally think that it is the world, the environment, external relationships, which stand in one's way, in the way of ones' good fortune... and at bottom it is always man himself that stands in his own way. Soren Kierkegaard honestymenthinking Marriage brings one into fatal connection with custom and tradition, and traditions and customs are like the wind and weather, altogether incalculable. Soren Kierkegaard marriageweatherwind When you read God's Word, you must constantly be saying to yourself, "It is talking to me, and about me". Soren Kierkegaard biblicalbibletalking To despair over one's sins indicates that sin has become or wants to be internally consistent. It wants nothing to do with the good, does not want to be so weak as to listen occasionally to other talk. No, it insists on listening only to itself, on having dealings only with itself; it closes itself up within itself, indeed, locks itself inside one more inclosure, and protects itself against every attack or pursuit by the good by despairing over sin. Soren Kierkegaard despairlisteningdoe There is no greater evil one can suffer than to hate reasonable discourse. Soren Kierkegaard hatesufferingevil Busyness, keeping up with others, hustling hither and yon, makes it almost impossible for an individual to form a heart. Soren Kierkegaard hustlechristianheart That is the road we all have to take - over the Bridge of Sight into eternity. Soren Kierkegaard journeybridgessight The individual (no matter how well-meaning he might be, no matter how much strength he might have, if only he would use it) does not have the passion to rip himself away from either the coils of Reflection or the seductive ambiguities of Reflection; nor do the surroundings and times have any events or passions, but rather provide a negative setting of a habit of reflection, which plays with some illusory project only to betray him in the end with a way out: it shows him that the most clever thing to do is nothing at all. Soren Kierkegaard rippassionclever It is so hard to believe because it is so hard to obey. Soren Kierkegaard belieffaithbelieve
