Category: KNOWLEDGE & SELF-KNOWLEDGE

  • Remember that thou art an actor in a play of such a kind as the teacher (author) may choose; if short, of a short one; if long, of a long one: if he wishes you to act the part of a poor man, see that you act the part naturally; if the part of a lame man, of a magistrate, of a private person, (do the same). For this is your duty, to act well the part that is given to you; but to select the part, belongs to another.

    —Epictetus, Enchiridion

  • Wish to be considered to know nothing: and if you shall seem to some to be a person of importance, distrust yourself.

    —Epictetus, Enchiridion

  • Every mood, every thought, good or evil, cheerful or sad, you pursue to its farthest limit, yet more in abstraction than concretely, so the pursuit is itself more like a mood from which nothing results except the knowledge of it, though not enough to make it more difficult or easy next time to abandon yourself to that same mood; for you keep it as a constant possibility.

    Either/Or: A Fragment of Life
    Søren Kierkegaard

  • For my wisdom is really not zum für Jedermann, and it is always more prudent to keep one’s rules of prudence to oneself. Disciples, then, I have no wish for, but should someone happen to be present at my deathbed, and if I was sure it was all over with me, I might perhaps in a fit of philanthropic delirium whisper my teaching in his ear, uncertain whether I had done him a service or not.

    Either/Or: A Fragment of Life
    Søren Kierkegaard

  • for the eloquence of sorrow is infinite and infinitely inventive.

    Either/Or: A Fragment of Life
    Søren Kierkegaard

  • In any case a reason is a curious thing; if I concentrate all my passion on it, it grows into a huge necessity that can move heaven and earth; if I lack passion, I look down on it with scorn.–I have speculated for some time as to the real reason why I resigned my post as secondary-school teacher. Thinking it over now, it occurs to me that such a position was the very thing for me. Today it dawned on me: that was precisely the reason, I had to consider myself absolutely fitted for the job. So if I’d continued in it I had everything to lose, nothing to gain. Wherefore I thought it proper to resign my post and seek employment with a travelling theatre, the reason being that I had no talent, and so everything to gain. […]

    Either/Or: A Fragment of Life
    Søren Kierkegaard

  • If anyone should keep a diary it’s me, to aid my memory a little. After a while it often happens that I completely forget what reasons motivated me to do this or that, not just in bagatelles, but also in taking the most decisive steps. Should the reason then occur to me, sometimes it seems so strange that I myself refuse to believe it was the reason.

    Either/Or: A Fragment of Life
    Søren Kierkegaard

  • I seem destined to suffer every possible mood, to gain experience in all directions.

    Either/Or: A Fragment of Life
    Søren Kierkegaard

  • One should be an enigma not just to others but to oneself too. I study myself. When I’m tired of that I light a cigar to pass the time, and think: God only knows what the good Lord really meant with me, or what He meant to make of me. […]

    Either/Or: A Fragment of Life
    Søren Kierkegaard

  • Ask any questions you will, just don’t ask me for reasons. A young girl is excused for not being able to give reasons, they say she lives in her feelings. It is different with me. Generally, I have so many and usually mutually contradictory reasons that, for that reason, it is impossible for me to give reasons.

    Either/Or: A Fragment of Life
    Søren Kierkegaard