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The Quotable Kierkegaard - Hardcover

Kierkegaard, Søren

 
9780691155302: The Quotable Kierkegaard
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 0691155305 ISBN 13: 9780691155302
Publisher: Princeton University Press, 2013

Synopsis

The most comprehensive and authoritative collection of Kierkegaard quotations ever published

"Why I so much prefer autumn to spring is that in the autumn one looks at heaven—in the spring at the earth."—Søren Kierkegaard

The father of existentialism, Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) was a philosopher who could write like an angel. With only a sentence or two, he could plumb the depths of the human spirit. In this collection of some 800 quotations, the reader will find dazzling bon mots next to words of life-changing power. Drawing from the authoritative Princeton editions of Kierkegaard's writings, this book presents a broad selection of his wit and wisdom, as well as a stimulating introduction to his life and work.

Organized by topic, this volume covers notable Kierkegaardian concerns such as anxiety, despair, existence, irony, and the absurd, but also erotic love, the press, busyness, and the comic. Here readers will encounter both well-known quotations ("Life must be understood backward. But then one forgets the other principle, that it must be lived forward") and obscure ones ("Beware false prophets who come to you in wolves' clothing but inwardly are sheep—i.e., the phrasemongers"). Those who spend time in these pages will discover the writer who said, "my grief is my castle," but who also taught that "the best defense against hypocrisy is love."

Illuminating and delightful, this engaging book also provides a substantial portrait of one of the most influential of modern thinkers.

  • Gathers some 800 quotations
  • Drawn from the authoritative Princeton editions of Kierkegaard's writings
  • Includes an introduction, a brief account and timeline of Kierkegaard's life, a guide to further reading, and an index

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author

Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855) was a Danish philosopher, theologian, and writer who is often considered the father of existentialism. His best-known books include Either/Or, Fear and Trembling, The Sickness Unto Death, and The Concept of Anxiety. Gordon Marino is professor of philosophy at St. Olaf College. His books include The Existentialist’s Survival Guide and Kierkegaard in the Present Age.

From the Back Cover

"The Quotable Kierkegaard serves equally well as an introduction or a reference book. There is no better way to sample the unique flavor of Kierkegaard's thought. And if you ever need a quotation for a speech or a sermon, for an epigraph or an epitaph, for a dedication or a denunciation, you're sure to find a striking one here."--David Lodge, author of Small World, Therapy, and other novels

"[A] collection of awesome quotes from that great Danish philosopher."--Mike Tyson

"This book is the best of two worlds: a rich collection of quotations from Kierkegaard that also provides a quick introduction to the central core of his thinking."--Alastair Hannay, author of Kierkegaard: A Biography

"This admirable selection of quotations from the eminently quotable Kierkegaard is a fine introduction to the breadth and variety of his thought."--Bruce H. Kirmmse, general editor of Kierkegaard's Journals and Notebooks

From the Inside Flap

"The Quotable Kierkegaard serves equally well as an introduction or a reference book. There is no better way to sample the unique flavor of Kierkegaard's thought. And if you ever need a quotation for a speech or a sermon, for an epigraph or an epitaph, for a dedication or a denunciation, you're sure to find a striking one here."--David Lodge, author ofSmall World, Therapy, and other novels

"This book is the best of two worlds: a rich collection of quotations from Kierkegaard that also provides a quick introduction to the central core of his thinking."--Alastair Hannay, author ofKierkegaard: A Biography

"This admirable selection of quotations from the eminently quotable Kierkegaard is a fine introduction to the breadth and variety of his thought."--Bruce H. Kirmmse, general editor ofKierkegaard's Journals and Notebooks

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

THE QUOTABLE KIERKEGAARD

By Gordon Marino

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS

Copyright © 2014 Gordon Marino
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-691-15530-2

Contents

Acknowledgments............................................................xi
Introduction...............................................................xiii
Kierkegaard's Biography....................................................xlv
Sources and Abbreviations..................................................lvii
Chronology.................................................................lxi
Autobiographical...........................................................1
Observations...............................................................18
Anxiety....................................................................65
Depression/Melancholy......................................................69
Self/Spirit................................................................73
Despair....................................................................83
Freedom....................................................................89
Possibility................................................................92
Choice/Decision............................................................94
The Ethical................................................................97
Deception/Self-Deception...................................................101
Guilt......................................................................104
Envy.......................................................................106
The Poet...................................................................109
Erotic Love................................................................111
Silence....................................................................113
Authority..................................................................117
Genius.....................................................................119
Writing/Communication......................................................121
The Press..................................................................124
Science....................................................................126
Philosophy.................................................................128
Existence..................................................................133
The Absurd.................................................................135
Paradox....................................................................137
The Understanding/Reason/Knowledge.........................................139
Truth......................................................................143
Time.......................................................................147
Eternal....................................................................149
Death......................................................................151
Immortality................................................................155
Repetition.................................................................156
Busyness...................................................................157
The Individual.............................................................159
Laughter/Humor/The Comic...................................................161
The Tragic.................................................................163
Irony......................................................................164
God........................................................................167
Faith......................................................................176
Passion....................................................................183
Prayer.....................................................................184
Earnestness/Seriousness....................................................186
Sin........................................................................190
Demonic....................................................................192
Repentance/Forgiveness.....................................................194
Christ.....................................................................197
Love.......................................................................199
Suffering..................................................................207
Neighbor...................................................................208
Christianity...............................................................210
Bibliography...............................................................219
Index......................................................................221


CHAPTER 1

AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL


One thought succeeds another. No sooner is it thoughtand I want to write it down, than there is a new one:hold onto it, seize it, madness, insanity!

JN, vol. 1, Journal CC: 21, p. 198

I really hate these half-learned robbers. When I am at asocial gathering, how often I have taken pains to sitdown to talk with some old spinster who lives to tellfamily stories, listening with the greatest seriousness toeverything she can prattle about.

JN, vol. 1, Journal CC: 23, p. 199

I prefer to talk with old ladies who retail family nonsense;next with the insane—and last of all with veryreasonable people.

JN, vol. 1, Journal CC: 24, p. 199

[W]hy I so much prefer autumn to spring is that in theautumn one looks at heaven—in the spring at theearth.

JN, vol. 1, Journal DD: 74, p. 236

I think that if ever I do become an earnest Christian,my deepest shame will be that I did not become onebefore, that I first wanted to try everything else.

JN, vol. 1, Journal DD: 89, p. 240

What does the soul find so invigorating about readingfolk tales? When I am tired of everything and "full ofdays," fairy-tales are for me always the revitalizing baththat proves so refreshing.

JN, vol. 1, Journal DD: 94, p. 241

Again such a long time has passed in which I have beenunable to collect myself for the least thing—I mustnow make another little shot at it.

Poul Møller is dead.

JN, vol. 1, Journal DD: 96, p. 243

There is an indescribable joy that glows through us justas inexplicably as the apostle's unmotivated exclamation:"Rejoice, and again I say, Rejoice."—Not a joyover this or that, but a full-bodied shout of the soul"with mouth and lip and heart so deep": "I rejoice atmy joy, of, in, with, at, upon, by, and with my joy"—aheavenly refrain which as though suddenly interruptsour other songs, a joy which like a breath of air coolsand refreshes, a puff from the trade winds that blowacross the plains of Mamre to the eternal mansions.

JN, vol. 1, Journal DD: 113, pp. 245–46

How I thank you, Father in heaven, for having kepthere on earth for a time like the present when my needfor it can be so great, an earthly father who, as I so verymuch hope, will with your help have greater joy inbeing my father the second time than he had the first.

JN, vol. 1, Journal DD: 116, p. 246

Grasping childhood is like grasping a beautiful regionas one rides in a carriage looking backward; one onlybecomes properly aware of the beauty at that moment,at that very instant when it begins to disappear, and allI have left of that happy time is crying like a child.

JN, vol. 1, Journal DD: 122[a], p. 248

My father died on Wednesday, the 8th, at 2:00 a.m. Idid so earnestly desire that he should live a few yearsmore, and I regard his death as the last sacrifice hislove made for me, because he has not died from mebut died for me, so that something might still comeof me.

JN, vol. 1, Journal DD: 126, p. 249

The pity about me is that my life, my states of mind,always follow two declensions, in which not only thesuffixes become different but the whole word ischanged.

JN, vol. 1, Journal DD: 197, p. 267

I am so unhappy right now that I am indescribablyhappy in my dreams.

JN, vol. 2, Journal EE: 59[a], p. 22

All of existence makes me anxious, from the smallestfly to the mysteries of the Incarnation; I find everythinginexplicable, myself most of all; everything is infected,myself most of all.

JN, vol. 2, Journal EE: 64, p. 23

I say of my grief what the Englishman says of his house:my grief is my castle.

JN, vol. 2, Journal EE: 65, p. 23

God in Heaven, let me really feel my nothingness, notso as to despair over it, but so as to feel the greatness ofyour goodness all the more strongly.

JN, vol. 2, Journal EE: 67, p. 24

These days my life feels rather like that of a chess piece,when the opponent says: that piece cannot be moved—likea useless bystander, since my time has not yet come.

JN, vol. 2, Journal EE: 76, p. 26

Strangely enough, there is something that has oftenmade me anxious: that the life I was living wasn't myown but quite identical with that of another definiteperson, without my being able to prevent it, and I onlydiscovered it whenever it had been lived through up toa certain point.

JN, vol. 2, Journal EE: 84, p. 28

I shall now, for a season, for some miles in time, plungeunderground like the Guadalquivir; to be sure, I shallcome up again!

JN, vol. 2, Journal EE: 128, p. 42

The reason why my progress through life is so uncertainis that my front legs (hopes, etc.) were weakenedin my early youth by being overexercised.

JN, vol. 2, Journal EE: 141, p. 44

I stand like a solitary spruce, egoistically self-enclosedand pointing toward what is higher, casting no shadow,and only the wood dove builds its nest in my branches.

JN, vol. 2, Journal FF: 54, p. 79

Every flower of my heart turns into a frost flower.

JN, vol. 2, Journal FF: 73, p. 83

My ideas suffer the same fate as do parents who,though they bear healthy children, forget to have themchristened in time; then subterranean beings comeand put a changeling in place of the child (what is lackingis not the natural element, but solicitous care anddevelopment).

JN, vol. 2, Journal FF: 74, p. 84

It seems to me as if I were a galley slave chained todeath; every time life stirs, the chain rattles and deathmakes everything wither away—and it happens everymoment.

JN, vol. 2, Journal FF: 79, p. 84

My ideas and their elaboration are like the biting of fishduring certain months of the year—they nibble. Thereare plenty of bites, but no fish.

JN, vol. 2, Journal FF: 84, p. 85

I am a Janus bifrons: with one face I laugh, with theother I weep.

JN, vol. 2, Journal FF: 93, p. 86

When at times there is such a racket in my head that itseems as if my cranium has been lifted up, as whengnomes lift a mountain up a bit, celebrating and makingmerry inside.

JN, vol. 2, Journal FF: 181, p. 101

After my death no one will find in my papers (this ismy consolation) the least information about what hasreally filled my life, find that script in my innermostbeing that explains everything, and which often, forme, makes what the world would call trifles into eventsof immense importance, and which I too consider ofno significance once I take away the secret note thatexplains it.

JN, vol. 2, Journal JJ: 95, p. 157

Had I faith I would have stayed with Regine. Praise andthanks be to God, I have now understood it. I havebeen on the point of losing my mind these days.

JN, vol. 2, Journal JJ: 115, p. 164

I was born in 1813, the wrong fiscal year, in which somany other bad banknotes were put into circulation,and my life seems best compared to one of them.There is something of greatness about me, but becauseof the poor state of the market I am not worth much.And at times a banknote like that became a family'smisfortune.

JN, vol. 2, Journal JJ: 198, p. 188

The way it is with my feelings is like an Englishmanwho got into financial difficulty; even though he had ahundred-pound note, there was no one there whocould change it.

JN, vol. 2, Journal JJ: 245, p. 200

There is a bird called the rainseer and that is what I amlike; in our times when a storm starts brewing, individualsof my sort turn up.

JN, vol. 2, Journal JJ: 391, p. 250

My idea is now to qualify myself for the priesthood[.]For several months I have prayed to God to help mealong, for it has long been clear to me that I ought not tocontinue as an author, which is something I want to beentirely or not at all. That's also why I haven't begun anythingnew while doing the proof-reading, except for thelittle review of Two Ages, which is, once more, concluding.

JN, vol. 2, Journal JJ: 415, p. 257

How dreadful the thought of that man who once, as asmall boy tending sheep on the Jutland heath, in muchsuffering, starving and exhausted, stood up on a hilland cursed God—and that man was unable to forget itwhen he was 82 years old.

JN, vol. 2, Journal JJ: 416, p. 257

I am always accused of using long parentheses. Readingfor my examination is the longest parenthesis Ihave experienced.

JN, vol. 3, Notebook 5: 19, p. 181

Next to taking off every stitch of clothing, owningnothing in the world, not the least little thing, and thenhurling myself into the water, nothing pleases me morethan speaking a foreign language, preferably a livingone, in order to become quite foreign to myself.

JN, vol. 3, Notebook 7: 11, p. 205

My doubt is frightful.—Nothing can stop me—it is ahunger of damnation, I can consume every sort of reasoning,every consolation, every comfort—I overrunall resistance at a speed of 10,000 miles a second.

JN, vol. 3, Notebook 7: 17, p. 206

In addition to the rest of my numerous circle of acquaintances—withwhom I generally have a rather superficialrelationship—I have one more intimate confidante:my melancholia; and in the midst of my joy, inthe midst of my work, she beckons to me, calling meaway, even though I remain present in body; she is themost faithful lover whom I have known, and whatwonder, then, that I must be instant[ly] ready tofollow.

JN, vol. 3, Notebook 7: 28, p. 209

How great is a woman's devotion.—But the curse hangingover me is that I never dare let any one becomedeeply and intimately attached to me.

JN, vol. 3, Notebook 8: 15, p. 224

I cannot be quit of this relationship, for I cannot poetizeit; the moment I want to poetize it, I am immediatelypossessed by an anxiety, an impatience whichwants to resort to action.

JN, vol. 3, Notebook 8: 18, p. 225

But it is undeniably an education to be situated as Iam in a small city like Copenhagen. To work to theutmost of my abilities, almost to the point of despair,with profound agony in my soul and much inner suffering,to pay out money in order to publish books—andthen to have literally fewer than 10 people whoread them through properly, while university studentsand other writers find it convenient to depictthe writing of a large book as something close toridiculous.

JN, vol. 4, Journal NB: 18, p. 15

If only I could make myself become a priest. After all,however much my present life has gratified me, outthere, in quiet activity, granting myself a bit of literaryproductivity in my free moments, I would breathemore easily.

JN, vol. 4, Journal NB: 19, pp. 16–17

To be the greatest philosopher in Denmark borders onsatire—something like being the greatest—let's think—thegreatest of all the traveling theater troupes one hasseen—in Odense. Or, as when P.L. Møller praised mypolemic against Heiberg—"that it was the wittiest of allthe things that had been written against Heiberg."

JN, vol. 4, Journal NB: 32, p. 32

I am in the deepest sense an unhappy individualwho, from my earliest days, has been nailed fast toone or another suffering that verged on madness andthat must have its deeper origin in a misrelation betweenmy mind and my body—because (and this isboth remarkable and an infinite encouragement tome) it has no relation to my spirit, which on the contrary,perhaps because of the tension between mymind and my body, has been granted an unusualresilience.

JN, vol. 4, Journal NB: 34, pp. 33–34

I seem to be fated never to be capable of being understoodby others with respect to the decisive elements ofmy life. What would never occur to anyone is preciselywhat is decisive for me. When one lives as strenuous alife as I do, the total misunderstanding is in a certainsense an agony.

JN, vol. 4, Journal NB: 35, p. 36

I really did imagine that I understood a little somethingabout human beings; but the longer I live, themore I realize that we absolutely do not understandone another.

JN, vol. 4, Journal NB: 71, p. 61

With respect to spelling, I submit unconditionally toauthority (Molbech); it never occurs to me to want tocorrect him, because I know that I lack expertise in thisarea, which is why I willingly admit that in this respectevery reasonably decent Danish author is perhapsmore careful about this than I am.

With punctuation matters are different. Here I submitunconditionally to no one, and I doubt very muchthat there is any Danish author who could competewith me in this respect.

JN, vol. 4, Journal NB: 146, p. 98

Now, Andersen can tell the fairy tale about the "Galoshesof Good Fortune," but I can tell the fairy tale about theshoe that pinches. Or rather, I could tell it, though preciselybecause I will not tell it but conceal it in profoundsilence, I am able to tell quite a few other things.

JN, vol. 4, Journal NB: 156, p. 103

My work is of such a nature that it can only be understoodafter my death, but this coincides with my idea ofpenance.

JN, vol. 4, Journal NB2: 9, p. 139

I suffered indescribable and unrelenting injustice atthe hands of those who continually construed as pridewhat was intended only to keep the secret of my melancholia.But, to be sure, I have achieved what I wished,for scarcely a soul has ever felt sympathy for me.

JN, vol. 4, Journal NB2: 71, p. 169

What I lack is the bodily energy—to loaf; what I have isintellectual energy, and the only thing one can do withthat is work.

JN, vol. 4, Journal NB2: 87, p. 175

From earliest childhood, an arrow of grief has beenembedded in my heart. As long as it remains there, Iam ironic—if it is drawn out, I will die.

JN, vol. 4, Journal NB2: 92, p. 177

When one is immersed in one's own thoughts and thuson the way to forgetting actuality, it is remarkable howone is called back, as happened to me today, by a peddlerwoman's cry: Cherries here, 6 shillings, cherrieshere for 6 shillings. What really brought me back wasnot just that cry—but that familiar voice! The memorycomes from my earliest childhood; only in more recentyears she has changed a bit, her mouth has become abit crooked, which somewhat affects her pronunciationof the word "shilling."

JN, vol. 4, Journal NB2: 112, p. 183

Until now I have protected myself against my melancholiawith intellectual labor that keeps it at bay. Now—inthe faith that God in forgiveness has forgotten theportion of guilt there is within it—I must myself try toforget it, though not through distraction, not by distancingmyself from it, but in God, so that when I thinkof God, I must think that he has forgotten it, and thusmyself learn to dare to forget it in forgiveness.

JN vol. 4, Journal NB2: 136, p. 194

And this is why not only my writings but indeed mylife, the intriguing secret of the whole machinery, willone day be studied and studied. I dare go so far as toguarantee that there is hardly a diplomat with as goodan overview of an age, even though he stands on thestreet and perceives every detail.

JN, vol. 4, Journal NB3: 22, p. 256

Had I not been of independent means, I would havegotten along well with my contemporaries. First of all,I wouldn't have had the time for large and thematicallyunified works; my achievements would have been likethose of other men. That's how to be loved. They wouldhave been trivialities—then they'd be read.

JN, vol. 4, Journal NB4: 14, p. 294

What my father said about me is true: "nothing willcome of you as long as you have money." He spoke prophetically;he thought I would drink it and dream itaway. But it didn't go quite that far. No, but with mysharp mind, and my melancholia, and then withmoney, oh, what favorable conditions for developingall the torments of self-torture in my heart.

JN, vol. 4, Journal NB4: 152, p. 357

I owe everything to my father from the very beginning.When, melancholic as he was, he saw melancholia inme, his plea to me was: See to it that you truly loveJesus Christ.

JN, vol. 4, Journal NB5: 65, p. 400

How true, then, are those words that I have so often saidof myself, that as Scheherazade saved her life by tellingtales, I save my life or keep myself alive by producing.

JN, vol. 5, NB8: 36, p. 167

Therefore my life is indeed also a bit of an offense: whatis offensive is that it does at least approximate expressingthat an idea does in fact exist. The lives of othersexpress that there exist well-paid, excellent livings, titles,and ranks: what could be offensive about this?—no,that is truth and wisdom.

JN, vol. 6, Journal NB12: 55, p. 169

Sometimes I find it edifying to consider that the thornor barb I have in the flesh, the suffering of which I patientlystrive to bear—that this is exactly what will become,or what will help me to become a thorn in theeye of the world.

JN, vol. 6, Journal NB12: 152, p. 239

In referring to my activity as an author ... I am like avoice, but I always have one more listener than speakersgenerally have: myself.

JN, vol. 6, Journal NB14: 103, p. 411


(Continues...)
Excerpted from THE QUOTABLE KIERKEGAARD by Gordon Marino. Copyright © 2014 Gordon Marino. Excerpted by permission of PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Publisher
Princeton University Press
Publication date
2013
Language
English
ISBN 10 
0691155305
ISBN 13 
9780691155302
Binding
Hardcover
Number of pages
304
Editor
Marino Gordon