The most common form of despair is not being who you are. Soren Kierkegaard More Quotes by Soren Kierkegaard More Quotes From Soren Kierkegaard One could construe the life of man as a great discourse in which the various people represent different parts of speech (the same might apply to states). Soren Kierkegaard speech men people There are, as is known, insects that die in the moment of fertilization. So it is with all joy: life's highest, most splendid moment of enjoyment is accompanied by death. Soren Kierkegaard splendid moments joy What is a poet? An unhappy man who hides deep anguish in his heart, but whose lips are so formed that when the sigh and cry pass through them, it sounds like lovely music.... And people flock around the poet and say: 'Sing again soon' - that is, 'May new sufferings torment your soul but your lips be fashioned as before, for the cry would only frighten us, but the music, that is blissful. Soren Kierkegaard heart men people Sin is in itself separation from the good, but despair over sin is separation a second time. Soren Kierkegaard separation despair time Imagine hidden in a simpler exterior a secret receptacle wherein the most precious treasure is deposited - there is a spring which has to be pressed, but the spring is hidden, and the pressure must have a certain strength, so that an accidental pressure would not be sufficient. So likewise is the hope of eternity hidden in man's inmost parts, and affliction is the pressure. When it presses the hidden spring, and strongly enough, then the contents appear in all their glory. Soren Kierkegaard secret spring men I am so fed up and joyless that not only have I nothing to fill my soul, I cannot even conceive of anything that could possibly satisfy it - alas, not even the bliss of heaven. Soren Kierkegaard bliss soul heaven He who does not know how to encircle a girl so that she loses sight of everything he does not want her to see, he who does not know how to poetize himself into a girl so that it is from her that everything proceeds as he wants it-he is and remains a bungler Soren Kierkegaard girl sight doe It seems to be my destiny to discourse on truth, insofar as I discover it, in such a way that all possible authority is simultaneously demolished. Soren Kierkegaard destiny authority way So to be sick unto death is, not to be able to die-yet not as though there were hope of life; no, the hopelessness in this case is that even the last hope, death, is not available. When death is the greatest danger, one hopes for life; but when one becomes acquainted with an even more dreadful danger, one hopes for death. So when the danger is so great that death has become one's hope, despair is the disconsolateness of not being able to die. Soren Kierkegaard sick hope life An individual in despair despairs over something. . . . In despairing over something, he really despair[s] over himself, and now he wants to get rid of himself. Consequently, to despair over something is still not despair proper. . . . To despair over oneself, in despair to will to be rid of oneself-this is the formula for all despair. Soren Kierkegaard despair individuality want If I were to wish for anything, I should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of the potential, for the eye which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible. Pleasure disappoints, possibility never. And what wine is so sparkling, what so fragrant, what so intoxicating, as possibility! Soren Kierkegaard wine success life Your own tactic is to train yourself in the art of becoming enigmatic to everybody. My young friend, suppose there was no one who troubld himself to guess your riddle--what joy, then, would you have in it? Soren Kierkegaard young-friends joy art All essential knowledge relates to existence, or only such knowledge as has an essential relationship to existence is essential knowledge. Soren Kierkegaard relate existence essentials It doesn't occur to me at this moment to say more; another time, perhaps tomorrow, I may have more to say, but always the same thing and about the same, for only gypsies, robber gangs and swindlers follow the adage that where a person has once been he is never to go again. Soren Kierkegaard gypsy tomorrow may Those who dream must be awakened, and the deeper the people are who slumber, or the deeper they slumber, the more important it is that they be awakened, and the more powerfully must they be awakened. Soren Kierkegaard important dream people Take away paradox from the thinker and you have a professor. Soren Kierkegaard teacher inspirational life Absolute passion cannot be understood by a third party. Soren Kierkegaard third-parties passion party To be a teacher in the right sense is to be a learner. I am not a teacher, only a fellow student. Soren Kierkegaard learners students teacher Dread is a sympathetic antipathy and an antipathetic sympathy. Soren Kierkegaard sympathetic dread sympathy ...there is one thing that all Satan's cunning and all the snares of temptation cannot take by surprise - an undivided will. Soren Kierkegaard satan temptation christian
