Quotes by Soren Kierkegaard

Most people believe that the Christian commandments are intentionally a little too severe - like setting a clock half an hour ahead to make sure of not being late in the morning.

Purity of heart is to will one thing.

Truth is not introduced into the individual from without but was within him all the time.

Wherever there is a crowd there is untruth.

Without risk faith is an impossibility.

Adversity not only draws people together but brings forth that beautiful inward friendship.

Most men pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry past it.

The conclusions of passion are the only reliable ones.

People hardly ever make use of the freedom they have for example freedom of thought instead they demand freedom of speech as a compensation.

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

What our age lacks is not reflection but passion.

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 . . . what wine is so sparkling so fragrant so intoxicating as possibility!

The tyrant dies and his rule is over the martyr dies and his rule begins.

Prayer does not change God but it changes him who prays.

To stand on one leg and prove Gods existence is a very different thing from going down on ones knees and thanking him.

Teach me O God not to torture myself not to make a martyr out of myself through stifling reflection but rather teach me to breathe deeply in faith.

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 ... what wine is so sparkling so fragrant so intoxicating as possibility!

Life can only be understood backwards but it must be lived forward.

Take away paradox from the thinker and you have a professor.

Patience is necessary, and one cannot reap immediately where one has sown.