August 31

“Christianity or being a Christian is like every radical cure; one puts it off as long as possible.”

~Source: The Journals (1835)
Author: Søren Kierkegaard


August 30

“The Socratic ignorance is the expression for the objective uncertainty; the inwardness of the existing individual is the truth. To anticipate here what will be developed later, let me make the following remark: the Socratic ignorance is an analogue to the category of the absurd, only that there is still less objective certainty in the repellent effect that the absurd exercises. It is certain only that it is absurd, and precisely on that account it incites to an infinitely greater tension in the corresponding inwardness.”

~Source: Concluding Unscientific Postscript To The “Philosophical Fragments” (1846)
Author: Søren Kierkegaard using the pseudonym Johannes Climacus

August 29

“Now in case a man were able to maintain himself upon the pinnacle of the instant choice, in case he could cease to be a man, in case he were in his inmost nature only an airy thought, in case personality meant nothing more than to be a kobold, which takes part indeed in the movements, but nevertheless remains unchanged; in case such were the situation, it would be foolish to say that it might ever be too late for a man to choose, for in a deeper sense there could be no question of a choice.”

~Source: Either/Or: A Fragment of Life (1843)

August 28

“One must guard against friendship. How is a friend defined? He is not what philosophy calls the necessary other, but the superfluous third. What are friendship’s ceremonies? You drink each other’s health, you open an artery and mingle your blood with that of the friend. It is difficult to say when the proper moment for this arrives, but it announces itself mysteriously; you feel some way that you can no longer address one another formally. When once you have had this feeling, then it can never appear that you have made a mistake, like Geert Westphaler, who discovered that he had been drinking to friendship with the public hangman.”

~Source: Either/Or: A Fragment Of Life (1843)
Author: Soren Kierkegaard using the pseudonym Victor Eremita

August 27

“I stick my finger into the world — it has no smell. Where am I? What does it mean to say: the world? What is the meaning of that word? Who tricked me into this whole thing and leaves me standing here? Who am I? How did I get into the world? Why was I not asked about it, why was I not informed of the rules and regulations but just thrust into the ranks as if I had been bought from a peddling shanghaier of human beings? How did I get involved in this big enterprise called actuality? Why should I be involved? Isn’t it a matter of choice? And if I am compelled to be involved, where is the manager — I have something to say about this. Is there no manager? To whom shall I make my complaint? After all, life is a debate — may I ask that my observations be considered?”

~Source: Repetition: A Venture in Experimenting Psychology (1843)
Author: Søren Kierkegaard using the pseudonym Constantin Constantius

August 26

“People have mutually confirmed one another in the notion that by the aid of the upshot of Christ’s life and 1,800 years (the consequences) they have become acquainted with the answer to the problem. By degrees, as this came to be accounted wisdom, all pith and vigor was distilled out of Christianity; the tension of the paradox was relaxed, one became a Christian without noticing it, and without in the least noticing the possibility of offense.”

~Source: Practice In Christianity (1850)
Author: Søren Kierkegaard using the pseudonym Anti-Climacus

August 25

“So-called pantheistic systems have often been characterized and challenged by the assertion that they abrogate the distinction between good and evil, and destroy freedom. Perhaps one would express oneself quite as definitely if one said that every such system fantastically dissipates the concept existence. But we ought to say this not merely of pantheistic systems; it would be more to the point to show that every system must be pantheistic precisely on account of its finality.”

Author: Søren Kierkegaard using the pseudonym Johannes Climacus

August 24

“It is, in the literary world, customary to take a holy vow… Accordingly I swear: as soon as possible to realize a plan contemplated for thirty years to publish a logical System, as soon as possible to honor my vow taken ten years ago concerning an aesthetic System; furthermore I promise an ethical and dogmatic System, and finally the System. As soon as this has been published, future generations will not even need to learn to write, for there will be nothing further to write, but only to read — the System.”

~Source: Prefaces: Light Reading for Certain Classes as the Occasion May Require (1844)
Author: Søren Kierkegaard using the pseudonym Nicolaus Notabene

August 23

“Then you acknowledged in all humility that God had certainly not deceived you, since He accepted you, since He accepted your earthly wishes and foolish desires, exchanged them for you and gave you instead heavenly consolation and holy thoughts; that He did not treat you unfairly when He denied you your wish, but for compensation created this faith in your heart; when instead of the wish, which even if it could do everything was at most able to give you the whole world, He gave you faith through which you gained God and overcame the whole world.”

~Source: Two Upbuilding Discourses (1843)
Author: Søren Kierkegaard

August 22

“A man becomes thinner and thinner day by day; he is wasting away. What can the matter be? He does not suffer want. ‘No certainly not,’ says the physician, ‘it doesn’t come from that, it comes precisely from eating, from the fact that he eats out of season, eats without being hungry, uses stimulants to arouse a little bit of appetite, and in that way he ruins his digestion, fades away as if he were suffering want.’ So it is religously. The most fatal thing of all is to satisfy a want which is not yet felt, so that without waiting till the want is present, one anticipates it, likely also uses stimulants to bring about something which is supposed to be a want, and then satisfies it. And this is shocking! And yet this is what they do in the religious sphere, whereby they really are cheating men out of what constitutes the significance of life, and helping people to waste life.”

~Source: Attack Upon “Christendom” (1854-55)

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