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

    Either/Or: A Fragment of Life
    Søren Kierkegaard

  • We pass one another in the street, the one person looks like the other, and the other just like anyone else, and only the experienced observer suspects that, in that head, there lives a lodger who has nothing to do with the world, but lives out his lonely life confined to quiet domesticity.

    Either/Or: A Fragment of Life
    Søren Kierkegaard

  • Yesterday I loved, Today I suffer, Tomorrow I die.

    Either/Or: A Fragment of Life
    Søren Kierkegaard

  • My soul has lost possibility. Were I to wish for anything I would not wish for wealth and power, but for the passion of the possible, that eye which everywhere, ever young, ever burning, sees possibility. Pleasure disappoints, not possibility.

    Either/Or: A Fragment of Life
    Søren Kierkegaard

  • I am alone, as I have always been; abandoned not by men, that would not pain me, but by the happy spirits of joy who in countless hosts encircled me, who met everywhere with their kind, pointed everywhere to an opportunity.

    Either/Or: A Fragment of Life
    Søren Kierkegaard

  • If you marry, you will regret it; if you do not marry, you will also regret it;

    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

  • A fire broke out backstage in a theatre. The clown came out to warn the public; they thought it was a joke and applauded. He repeated it; the acclaim was even greater. I think that’s just how the world will come to an end: to general applause from wits who believe it’s a joke.

    Either/Or: A Fragment of Life
    Søren Kierkegaard