“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”
― Søren Kierkegaard tags: future, life, past, reflection, understanding 7181 likes Like “The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.” ― Søren Kierkegaard tags: faith, god, prayer 3450 likes Like “People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.” ― Søren Kierkegaard tags: civil-rights, free-speech, free-will, freedom, intelligence, liberty, stupidity 3135 likes Like “Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.” ― Søren Kierkegaard, The Concept of Anxiety: A Simple Psychologically Orienting Deliberation on the Dogmatic Issue of Hereditary Sin tags: anxiety, dizziness, fear, freedom, life 2472 likes Like “People understand me so poorly that they don't even understand my complaint about them not understanding me.” ― Søren Kierkegaard, The Journals of Kierkegaard tags: complaint, misunderstood 1738 likes Like “Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.” ― Søren Kierkegaard tags: life, reality 1517 likes Like “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” ― Søren Kierkegaard tags: blindness, fools, self-deception, truth, willful-blindness, willful-ignorance 1386 likes Like “It is perfectly true, as philosophers say, that life must be understood backwards. But they forget the other proposition, that it must be lived forwards.” ― Søren Kierkegaard 1223 likes Like “The most common form of despair is not being who you are.” ― Søren Kierkegaard tags: self-betrayal, truth 1129 likes Like “What labels me, negates me.” ― Søren Kierkegaard 926 likes Like “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.” ― Søren Kierkegaard, The Sickness Unto Death: A Christian Psychological Exposition for Upbuilding and Awakening tags: despair, self 926 likes Like “I see it all perfectly; there are two possible situations — one can either do this or that. My honest opinion and my friendly advice is this: do it or do not do it — you will regret both.” ― Søren Kierkegaard, Either/Or: A Fragment of Life tags: life, regret 883 likes Like “The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly.” ― Søren Kierkegaard, Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard tags: bible, christianity 841 likes Like “The most painful state of being is remembering the future, particularly the one you'll never have.” ― Søren Kierkegaard 815 likes Like “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.” ― Søren Kierkegaard, Either/Or: A Fragment of Life tags: depression 738 likes Like “What is a poet? An unhappy man who hides deep anguish in his heart, but whose lips are so formed that when the sigh and cry pass through them, it sounds like lovely music.... And people flock around the poet and say: 'Sing again soon' - that is, 'May new sufferings torment your soul but your lips be fashioned as before, for the cry would only frighten us, but the music, that is blissful.” ― Søren Kierkegaard, Either/Or tags: poets 655 likes Like “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” ― Søren Kierkegaard 624 likes Like “Once you label me you negate me.” ― Søren Kierkegaard tags: labels, stereotypes 591 likes Like “What if everything in the world were a misunderstanding, what if laughter were really tears?” ― Søren Kierkegaard tags: melancholy 542 likes Like “A fire broke out backstage in a theatre. The clown came out to warn the public; they thought it was a joke and applauded. He repeated it; the acclaim was even greater. I think that's just how the world will come to an end: to general applause from wits who believe it's a joke.” ― Søren Kierkegaard, Either/Or, Part I tags: humor 532 likes Like “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