“Ethically the ideality is the real within the individual himself. The real is an inwardness that is infinitely interested in existing; this is exemplified in the ethical individual.” —————————————- ~Source: Concluding Unscientific Postscript To The “Philosophical Fragments” Author: Soren Kierkegaard using the pseudonym Johannes Climacus (1846) Filed under: […]

“In a passionate age enthusiasm is the unifying principle, in a passionless, very reflective age envy is the negatively unifying principle.” ——————————————————- ~Source: The Journals (1845) Author: Søren Kierkegaard Filed under: Blooms Tagged: The Journals (1845) […]

“Imagine a gathering of worldly-minded, timorous people whose highest law in everything is a slavish regard for what others, what ‘they’ will say and judge, whose sole concern is that unchristian concern that ‘everywhere they speak well’ of them, whose admired goal is to be just like the others, whose sole inspiring and whose sole […]

“And are there not many people who are like that, who own nothing except in the moment when they show it to others, who grasp only the surface, not the essence, who lose everything if this appears…” ——————————————————– ~Source: Either/Or (1843) Author: Søren Kierkegaard using the pseudonym Victor Eremita Filed under: Blooms Tagged: Either/Or, Victor […]

“All ironical observations depend upon paying attention to the ‘how,’ whereas the gentleman with whom the ironist has the honor to converse is attentive only to the ‘what.’ A man protests loudly and solemnly, ‘This is my opinion.’ However, he does not confine himself to delivering this formula verbatim, he explains himself further, he ventures […]

“It is not impossible that it might occur to man to imagine himself the equal of God, or to imagine God the equal of man, but not to imagine that God would make himself into the likeness of man; for if God gave no sign, how could it enter into the mind of man that […]

“So they sat in their quiet sorrow: they did not harden themselves against the consolation of the world; they were humble enough to acknowledge that life is a dark saying, and as in their thought they were swift to listen to see if there might be an explanatory word, so were they also slow to […]

“But when it is a duty to love, there no test is needed and the insulting stupidity of wishing to test is superfluous; since love is higher than any proof, it has already more than met the test, in the same sense that faith ‘more than conquers.’ The very fact of testing always presupposes a […]