Soren Kierkegaard
The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.
Soren KierkegaardOur life always expresses the result of our dominant thoughts.
Soren KierkegaardJust as in earthly life lovers long for the moment when they are able to breathe forth their love for each other, to let their souls blend in a soft whisper, so the mystic longs for the moment when in prayer he can, as it were, creep into God.
Soren KierkegaardThe truth is a snare: you cannot have it, without being caught. You cannot have the truth in such a way that you catch it, but only in such a way that it catches you.
Soren KierkegaardWisdom is the supreme part of happiness.
Soren KierkegaardAdversity draws men together and produces beauty and harmony in life's relationships, just as the cold of winter produces ice-flowers on the window-panes, which vanish with the warmth.
Soren KierkegaardTo be a teacher in the right sense is to be a learner. I am not a teacher, only a fellow student.
Soren KierkegaardIf I were to wish for anything, I should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of potential -- for the eye which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible. Pleasure disappoints; possibility never.
Soren KierkegaardTo dare is to lose one's footing momentarily. Not to dare is to lose oneself.
Soren KierkegaardDon't forget to love yourself.
Soren KierkegaardLove is all, it gives all, and it takes all.
Soren KierkegaardFather in Heaven! When the thought of thee wakes in our hearts, let it not awaken like a frightened bird that flies about in dismay, but like a child waking from its sleep with a heavenly smile.
Soren KierkegaardA man who as a physical being is always turned toward the outside, thinking that his happiness lies outside him, finally turns inward and discovers that the source is within him.
Soren KierkegaardOnly when it is a duty to love, only then is love eternally and happily secured against despair.
Soren KierkegaardLife is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.
Soren KierkegaardPeople demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought...which they avoid.
Soren KierkegaardLife can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.
Soren KierkegaardIt seems essential, in relationships and all tasks, that we concentrate only on what is most significant and important.
Soren KierkegaardPeople demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.
Soren KierkegaardDuring the first period of a man's life the greatest danger is not to take the risk.
Soren KierkegaardAnd when the hourglass has run out, the hourglass of temporality, when the noise of secular life has grown silent and its restless or ineffectual activism has come to an end, when everything around you is still, as it is in eternity, then eternity asks you and every individual in these millions and millions about only one thing: whether you have lived in despair or not.
Soren KierkegaardOld age realizes the dreams of youth: look at Dean Swift; in his youth he built an asylum for the insane, in his old age he was himself an inmate.
Soren KierkegaardI begin with the principle that all men are bores. Surely no one will prove himself so great a bore as to contradict me in this.
Soren KierkegaardIn addition to my other numerous acquaintances, I have one more intimate confidant. My depression is the most faithful mistress I have known -- no wonder, then, that I return the love.
Soren KierkegaardPrayer does not change God, but changes him who prays.
Soren Kierkegaard
