An individual in despair despairs over something. . . . In despairing over something, he really despair[s] over himself, and now he wants to get rid of himself. Consequently, to despair over something is still not despair proper. . . . To despair over oneself, in despair to will to be rid of oneself-this is the formula for all despair.
Soren KierkegaardWhat looks like politics, and imagines itself to be political, will one day unmask itself as a religious movement.
Soren KierkegaardGeniuses are like thunderstorms: they go against the wind, terrify people, clear the air.
Soren KierkegaardA man may perform astonishing feats and comprehend a vast amount of knowledge, and yet have no understanding of himself. But suffering directs a man to look within. If it succeeds, then there, within him, is the beginning of his learning.
Soren KierkegaardTo stand on one leg and prove God's existence is a very different thing from going on one's knees and thanking him.
Soren KierkegaardNo grand inquisitor has in readiness such terrible tortures as has anxiety and no spy knows how to attack more artfully the man he suspects, choosing the instant when he is weakest; nor knows how to lay traps where he will be caught and ensnared as anxiety knows how, and no sharp-witted judge knows how to interrogate, to examine the accused, as anxiety does, which never lets him escape.
Soren Kierkegaard