Quotes from Soren Kierkegaard

A man's life is wasted when he lives on, so deceived by the joys of life or by its sorrows, that he never becomes decisively conscious of himself as spirit, as self, that is, he never is aware in the deepest sense that there is a God.

In the deepest sense you shall make yourself nothing, become nothing before God, learn to be silent. In this silence is the beginning, which is to seek first God's kingdom

Now the story of Abraham has the remarkable property that it is always glorious, however poorly one may understand it; yet here again the proverb applies, that all depends upon whether one is willing to labor and be heavy laden. But they will not labor, and yet they would understand the story.

My life is utterly meaningless

I have often discovered how profitable it is to give sorrow an ethical expression, not to erase the aesthetic factor in sorrow but to master it ethically. As long as sorrow is quiet and humble, I do not fear it; if it becomes vehement and passionate, sophistical so that it deludes me into despondency, I arise, I brook no rebellion, I will have nothing in the world cheat me of what I have from God's hand as a gift of grace. I do not chase sorrow away, do not try to forget it, I repent.

Lord, give us weak eyes for things of little worth, and eyes clear-sighted in all of your truth.

The Good is one thing; the reward is something else. To will the Good for the sake of reward is not to will one thing but two. If a man loves a woman for the sake of her wealth, who will call him a lover? To will the Good for the sake of reward is hypocrisy — sheer duplicity!

an adventure that every human being has to live through, learning to be anxious so as not to be ruined either by never having been in anxiety or by sinking into it. Whoever has learned to be anxious in the right way has learned the ultimate.

People had not so much as the courage and honesty and truth to say to God bluntly, That I cannot agree to, they resorted to hypocrisy and thought they were perfectly secure. pp 168-6

AÅŸk için her ÅŸey imgedir; ama imge de hakikattir.

for he who loves God without faith reflects upon himself he who loves God believingly reflects upon God.

Is this the same teaching, when Christ says to the rich young man, Sell all that thou hast, and give it to the poor; and when the priest says, Sell all that thou hast and...give it to me?