There can be no faith without risk. Soren Kierkegaard More Quotes by Soren Kierkegaard More Quotes From Soren Kierkegaard The greatest hazard of all, losing one’s self, can occur very quietly in the world, as if it were nothing at all. No other loss can occur so quietly; any other loss - an arm, a leg, five dollars, a wife, etc. - is sure to be noticed. Soren Kierkegaard wifeselfloss During the first period of a man's life the greatest danger is not to take the risk. Soren Kierkegaard heartacheinspirationalmen It was completely fruitless to quarrel with the world, whereas the quarrel with oneself was occasionally fruitful and always, she had to admit, interesting. Soren Kierkegaard positive-attitudeworldinteresting It is very dangerous to go into eternity with possibilities which one has oneself prevented from becoming realities. A possibility is a hint from God. One must follow it. Soren Kierkegaard visionopportunityreality Why I so much prefer autumn to spring is that in the autumn one looks at heaven--in the spring at the earth. Soren Kierkegaard autumnspringheaven It is quite true what Philosophy says: that Life must be understood backwards. But that makes one forget the other saying: that it must be lived—forwards. The more one ponders this, the more it comes to mean that life in the temporal existence never becomes quite intelligible, precisely because at no moment can I find complete quiet to take the backward- looking position. Soren Kierkegaard wisdominspiringlife It seems essential, in relationships and all tasks, that we concentrate only on what is most significant and important. Soren Kierkegaard aquariumsdatingrelationship The absurd . . . the fact that with God all things are possible. The absurd is not one of the factors which can be discriminated within the proper compass of the understanding: it is not identical with the improbable, the unexpected, the unforeseen. Soren Kierkegaard unexpectedunderstandingfacts There are many people who reach their conclusions about life like schoolboys: they cheat their master by copying the answer out of a book without having worked the sum out for themselves. Soren Kierkegaard lifebookpeople To stand on one leg and prove God's existence is a very different thing from going on one's knees and thanking him. Soren Kierkegaard thanking-himkneeslegs Oh, can I really believe the poet's tales, that when one first sees the object of one's love, one imagines one has seen her long ago, that all love like all knowledge is remembrance, that Soren Kierkegaard long-agoremembrancebelieve Whoever has the world's treasures has them no matter how he got them. In the world of the spirit it is otherwise. Soren Kierkegaard treasurefaithworld Irony is a disciplinarian feared only by those who do not know it, but cherished by those who do. He who does not understand irony and has no ear for its whispering lacks of what might called the absolute beginning of the personal life. He lacks what at moments is indispensable for the personal life, lacks both the regeneration and rejuvenation, the cleaning baptism of irony that redeems the soul from having its life in finitude though living boldly and energetically in finitude. Soren Kierkegaard ironicbaptismsoul Just as in the great moment of resignation one does not mediate but chooses, now the task is to gain proficiency in repeating the impassioned choice and, existing, to express it in existence. Soren Kierkegaard taskschoicesdoe With the daguerreotype, everyone will be able to have their portrait taken . . . and at the same time everything is being done to make us all look exactly the same. Soren Kierkegaard daguerreotypesportraitstaken It is the duty of the human understanding to understand that there are things which it cannot understand, and what those things are. Human understanding has vulgarly occupied itself with nothing but understanding, but if it would only take the trouble to understand itself at the same time it would simply have to posit the paradox. Soren Kierkegaard paradoxunderstandingtrouble Job endured everything - until his friends came to comfort him, then he grew impatient. Soren Kierkegaard comfortfriendshipjobs Out of love for mankind, and out of despair at my embarrassing situation, seeing that I had accomplished nothing and was unable to make anything easier than it had already been made, and moved by a genuine interest in those who make everything easy, I conceived it as my task to create difficulties everywhere. Soren Kierkegaard despairtaskseasy ...my soul always reverts to the Old Testament and to Shakespeare. There at least one feels that it's human beings talking. There people hate, people love, people murder their enemy and curse his descendants through all generations, there people sin. Soren Kierkegaard hatetalkingpeople 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
