755 Quotes by Søren Kierkegaard

The thing that cowardice fears most is decision.

People understand me so poorly that they don’t even understand my complaint about them not understanding me.

This is all that I’ve known for certain, that God is love. Even if I have been mistaken on this or that point: God is nevertheless love.

Don’t you know that a midnight hour comes when everyone has to take off his mask? Do you think life always lets itself be trifled with? Do you think you can sneak off a little before midnight to escape this?

Love is the expression of the one who loves, not of the one who is loved. Those who think they can love only the people they prefer do not love at all. Love discovers truths about individuals that others cannot see.

Now, with God’s help, I shall become myself.

There is something almost cruel about the Christian’s being placed in a world which in every way wants to pressure him to do the opposite of what God bids him to do.

The follower aspires with all his strength to be what he admires. And then, remarkably enough, even though he lives amongst a ‘Christian people,’ he incurs the same peril as he did when it was dangerous to openly confess Christ. And because of the follower’s life, it will become evident who the admirers are, for the admirers will become agitated with him. Even these words will disturb many – but then they must likewise belong to the admirers.

You should therefore say: alone in one’s boat, alone with one’s care, alone with one’s despair, which one is craven enough to want rather to keep than submit to the pain of being healed.