"... to be able to come down in such a way that instantaneously one seems to stand and to walk, to change the leap into life into walking, absolutely to express the sublime in the pedestrian—only that knight can do it, and this is the one and only marvel."
— Johannes de Silentio, Fear and Trembling
"There is nothing with which every man is so afraid as getting to know how enormously much he is capable of doing and becoming."
— Søren Kierkegaard, Journals
"Philosophy is perfectly right in saying that life must be understood backward. But then one forgets the other clause—that it must be lived forward. The more one thinks through this clause, the more one concludes that life in temporality never becomes properly understandable, simply because never at any time does one get perfect repose to take a stance—backward."
— Søren Kierkegaard, Journals
"What is a poet? An unhappy person who conceals profound anguish in his heart but whose lips are so formed that as sighs and cries pass over them they sound like beautiful music."
— "A", Either/Or
"The greatest hazard of all, losing the self, can occur very quietly in the world, as if it were nothing at all. No other loss can occur so quietly; any other loss—an arm, a leg, five dollars, a wife, etc.—is sure to be noticed."
— Anti-Climacus, The Sickness Unto Death
"He who loved himself became great by virtue of himself, and he who loved other men became great by his devotedness, but he who loved God became the greatest of all."
— Johannes de Silentio, Fear and Trembling
"It is easy to see that anyone wanting to have a literary lark merely needs to take some quotations higgedly-piggedly from "The Seducer," then from Johannes Climacus, then from me, etc., print them together as if they were all my words, show how they contradict each other, and create a very chaotic impression, as if the author were some kind of lunatic. Hurrah! That can be done. In my opinion anyone who exploits the poetic in me by quoting the writings in a confusing way is more or less either a charlatan or a literary toper."
— Søren Kierkegaard, on being frequently misquoted in his Journals
