1813-1855, Danish Philosopher, Writer
Adversity draws men together and produces beauty and harmony in life's relationships, just as the cold of winter produces ice-flowers on the window-panes, which vanish with the warmth.
Soren Kierkegaard – [Adversity]
Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.
Soren Kierkegaard – [Anxiety]
At one time my only wish was to be a police official. It seemed to me to be an occupation for my sleepless intriguing mind. I had the idea that there, among criminals, were people to fight: clever, vigorous, crafty fellows. Later I realized that it was good that I did not become one, for most police cases involve misery and wretchedness — not crimes and scandals.
Soren Kierkegaard – [Police]
Be that self which one truly is.
Soren Kierkegaard – [Self-love]
Because of its tremendous solemnity death is the light in which great passions, both good and bad, become transparent, no longer limited by outward appearances.
Soren Kierkegaard – [Death and Dying]
Boredom is the root of all evil–the despairing refusal to be oneself.
Soren Kierkegaard – [Bores and Boredom]
Concepts, like individuals, have their histories and are just as incapable of withstanding the ravages of time as are individuals. But in and through all this they retain a kind of homesickness for the scenes of their childhood.
Soren Kierkegaard – [Ideas]
During the first period of a man's life, the danger is not to take the risk.
Soren Kierkegaard – [Risk]
Face the facts of being what you are, for that is what changes what you are.
Soren Kierkegaard – [Self-expression]
Faith is the highest passion in a human being. Many in every generation may not come that far, but none comes further.
Soren Kierkegaard – [Faith]
Far from idleness being the root of all evil, it is rather the only true good.
Soren Kierkegaard – [Idleness]
Father in Heaven! When the thought of thee wakes in our hearts let it not awaken like a frightened bird that flies about in dismay, but like a child waking from its sleep with a heavenly smile.
Soren Kierkegaard – [Prayer]
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.
Soren Kierkegaard – [Saints]
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.
Soren Kierkegaard – [Freedom of Speech]
How ironical that it is by means of speech that man can degrade himself below the level of dumb creation — for a chatterbox is truly of a lower category than a dumb creature.
Soren Kierkegaard – [Talkativeness]
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.
Soren Kierkegaard – [Bores and Boredom]
I divide my time as follows: half the time I sleep, the other half I dream. I never dream when I sleep, for that would be a pity, for sleeping is the highest accomplishment of genius.
Soren Kierkegaard – [Sleep]
I feel as if I were a piece in a game of chess, when my opponent says of it: That piece cannot be moved.
Soren Kierkegaard – [Frustration]
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 – [Possibilities]
In addition to my other numerous acquaintances, I have one more intimate confidant. My depression is the most faithful mistress I have known — no wonder, then, that I return the love.
Soren Kierkegaard – [Depression]