··· Search Results ···

Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.

— Søren Kierkegaard  <link>

What Christ Asks

If you have any knowledge at all of human nature, you know that those who only admire the truth will, when danger appears, become traitors. The admirer is infatuated with the false security of greatness; but if there is any inconvenience or trouble, he pulls back. Admiring the truth, instead of following it, is just as dubious a fire as the fire of erotic love, which at the turn of the hand can be changed into exactly the opposite, to hate, jealousy, and revenge. Christ, however, never asked for admirers, worshippers, or adherents. He consistently spoke of “followers” and “disciples.”

— Søren Kierkegaard  <link>

Alas, fortune’s door does not open inward so that one can push it open by rushing at it; but it opens outward, and therefore one can do nothing about it.

— Søren Kierkegaard  <link>

Affliction is able to drown out every earthly voice…but the voice of eternity within a man it cannot drown.

— Søren Kierkegaard  <link>

When a spider plunges from a fixed point to its consequences, it always sees before it an empty space where it can never set foot, no matter how it wriggles.

— Søren Kierkegaard  <link>

Life is lived forward but understood backward.

— Søren Kierkegaard  <link>