Author

Soren Kierkegaard

46 quotations

About Soren Kierkegaard

Søren Aabye Kierkegaard was a Danish philosopher, Lutheran theologian, poet, social critic, and religious author who is widely considered to be the first existentialist philosopher. He wrote critical texts on organized religion, Christianity, morality, ethics, psychology, love, and the philosophy of religion, displaying a fondness for metaphor, irony, and parables. Much of his philosophical work deals with the issues around how one lives as a "single individual", highlighting the importance of …

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Topics: God Life Great Freedom Love Men
I begin with the principle that all men are bores. Surely no one will prove himself so great a bore as to contradict me in this.
Because of its tremendous solemnity death is the light in which great passions, both good and bad, become transparent, no longer limited by outward appearences.
Just as in earthly life lovers long for the moment when they are able to breathe forth their love for each other, to let their souls blend in a soft whisper, so the mystic longs for the moment when i…
The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.
If I am capable of grasping God objectively, I do not believe, but precisely because I cannot do this I must believe.
God creates out of nothing. Wonderful you say. Yes, to be sure, but he does what is still more wonderful: he makes saints out of sinners.

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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.
Faith is the highest passion in a human being. Many in every generation may not come that far, but none comes further.
Old age realizes the dreams of youth: look at Dean Swift in his youth he built an asylum for the insane, in his old age he was himself an inmate.
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.
Because of its tremendous solemnity death is the light in which great passions, both good and bad, become transparent, no longer limited by outward appearences.
It seems essential, in relationships and all tasks, that we concentrate only on what is most significant and important.
Not just in commerce but in the world of ideas too our age is putting on a veritable clearance sale. Everything can be had so dirt cheap that one begins to wonder whether in the end anyone will want …
Old age realizes the dreams of youth: look at Dean Swift in his youth he built an asylum for the insane, in his old age he was himself an inmate.