Verified Quotes
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Soren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher who broke off his own engagement and spent the rest of his life examining what it costs, gets quoted everywhere and sourced almost nowhere. The 17 quotes below are different: each one is checked word for word against the cited work, starting with Either/Or, not copied from aggregator sites that pass misattributions along. The source is named under every line, so you can trace each quote back to the page it came from.
Read Soren Kierkegaard's full profile and how they reason →1 verified quote
On making a big decision without knowing yet how the story ends:
Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.Soren Kierkegaard, Journals and Papers
1 verified quote
On the panic that hits right after a big opportunity opens up:
Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.Soren Kierkegaard, The Concept of Anxiety
2 verified quotes
On figuring out who you are outside of any relationship:
The self is a relation that relates itself to itself.Soren Kierkegaard, The Sickness Unto Death
On taking the leap into self employment:
To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose oneself.Soren Kierkegaard, The Sickness Unto Death
1 verified quote
On dropping four half finished projects to commit to one:
Purity of heart is to will one thing.Soren Kierkegaard, Purity of Heart Is to Will One Thing
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On the restlessness that leads people to blow up a stable life:
Boredom is the root of all evil.Soren Kierkegaard, Either/Or
On committing to a marriage as ongoing work not a finished feeling:
Marriage is not merely an object of desire but a task and a task with a purpose, that of preserving one's love in the changes of time.Soren Kierkegaard, Either/Or
Deciding whether marriage is the right move for you:
Marry, and you will regret it; do not marry, and you will also regret it. Marry or do not marry, you will regret it either way.Soren Kierkegaard, Either/Or
Realizing a life plan that sounded good in theory does not match your real experience:
What philosophers say about reality is often as disappointing as a sign you see in a shop window.Soren Kierkegaard, Either/Or
3 verified quotes
On trusting your own conscience against everyone else's rule:
Faith is precisely the paradox that the single individual is higher than the universal.Soren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling
On making a leap nobody else can talk you into or out of:
The knight of faith is obliged to rely upon himself alone.Soren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling
Facing a decision that requires fully committing before you get the outcome:
Only he who draws the knife gets Isaac.Soren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling
1 verified quote
On choosing bold action over endless overthinking before a launch:
What our age lacks is not reflection but passion.Soren Kierkegaard, The Present Age
3 verified quotes
Holding back from committing to someone out of fear of getting hurt:
To cheat oneself out of love is the most terrible deception.Soren Kierkegaard, Works of Love
Deciding how much trust to extend to a partner after being hurt before:
Love believes all things, and yet is never deceived.Soren Kierkegaard, Works of Love
Deciding whether your words to a struggling friend will help or harm:
Love builds up.Soren Kierkegaard, Works of Love
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Choosing a path that feels true to you over one that looks correct on paper:
Subjectivity is truth.Soren Kierkegaard, Concluding Unscientific Postscript