This is what is sad when one contemplates human life, that so many live out their lives in quiet lostness… they live, as it were, away from themselves and vanish like shadows. Their immortal souls...

Out of love for mankind, and out of despair at my embarrassing situation, seeing that I had accomplished nothing and was unable to make anything easier than it had already been made, and moved by...

Christianity will not be content to be an evolution within the total category of human nature; an engagement such as that is too little to offer to a god. Neither does it even want to...

The difference between an admirer and a follower still remains, no matter where you are. The admirer never makes any true sacrifices. He always plays it safe. Though in words, phrases, songs, he is inexhaustible...

It is now my intention to draw out from the story of Abraham the dialecticalconsequences inherent in it, expressing them in the form ofproblemata, in order to seewhat a tremendous paradox faith is, a paradox...

Nowadays not even a suicide kills himself in desperation. Before taking the step he deliberates so long and so carefully that he literally chokes with thought. It is even questionable whether he ought to be...

Christendom has done away with Christianity without being quite aware of it

The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.

It is so hard to believe because it is so hard to obey.

It happened that a fire broke out backstage in a theater. The clown came out to inform the public. They thought it was a jest and applauded. He repeated his warning. They shouted even louder....

At one time my only wish was to be a police official. It seemed to me to be an occupation for my sleepless intriguing mind. I had the idea that there, among criminals, were people...

People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they seldom use

The paradox is really the pathos of intellectual life and just as only great souls are exposed to passions it is only the great thinker who is exposed to what I call paradoxes, which are...

I feel as if I were a piece in a game of chess, when my opponent says of it: That piece cannot be moved.

The more he needs God, the more deeply he comprehends he is in need of God, and then the more he in his need presses forward to God, the more perfect he is… To need...

Come, sleep and death; you promise nothing, you hold everything.

Whether you are man or woman, rich or poor, dependent or free, happy or unhappy; whether you bore in your elevation the splendour of the crown or in humble obscurity only the toil and heat...

There is peace and rest and comfort in sorrow

Face the facts of being what you are, for that is what changes what you are.

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.

What is existence for but to be laughed at if men in their twenties have already attained the utmost?

When one has once fully entered the realm of love, the world — no matter how imperfect — becomes rich and beautiful, it consists solely of opportunities for love.

Marry, and you will regret it; don’t marry, you will also regret it; marry or don’t marry, you will regret it either way. Laugh at the world’s foolishness, you will regret it; weep over it,...

Riches and abundance come hypocritically clad in sheep’s clothing, pretending to be security against anxieties, and they become then the object of anxiety. They secure a man against anxieties just about as well as the...

The difference between a man who faces death for the sake of an idea and an imitator who goes in search of martyrdom is that whilst the former expresses his idea most fully in death...

Personality is only ripe when a man has made the truth his own.

God creates out of nothing. Wonderful you say. Yes, to be sure, but he does what is still more wonderful: he makes saints out of sinners.

Every mental act is composed of doubt and belief,but it is belief that is the positive, it is beliefthat sustains thought and holds the world together.

All men have a natural fear of making a mistake–by believing too well of a person. However, the error of believing too ill of a person is perhaps not feared, at least not in the...

People understand me so poorly that they don’t even understand my complaint about them not understanding me.

Marriage brings one into fatal connection with custom and tradition, and traditions and customs are like the wind and weather, altogether incalculable.

Spiritual superiority only sees the individual. But alas, ordinarily we human beings are sensual and, therefore, as soon as it is a gathering, the impression changes — we see something abstract, the crowd, and we...

Where am I? Who am I? How did I come to be here? What is this thing called the world? How did I come into the world? Why was I not consulted? And If I...

People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.

Jeg kommer netop nu fra et Selskab, hvor jeg var Sjælen; Vittigheder strømmede ud fra min Mund, alle loe, beundrede mig – men jeg gik, ja den Tankestreg bør være ligesaa lang som Jordbanens Radier...

…The discrepancy is that the ethical self should be found immanently in the despair, that the individual won himself by persisting in the despair. True, he has used something within the category of freedom, choosing...

When you read God’s Word, you must constantly be saying to yourself, ”It is talking to me, and about me.”

A man who as a physical being is always turned toward the outside, thinking that his happiness lies outside him, finally turns inward and discovers that the source is within him.

How ironical that it is by means of speech that man can degrade himself below the level of dumb creation — for a chatterbox is truly of a lower category than a dumb creature.

la vida sólo puede ser entendida mirando hacia atrás; aunque deba ser vivida mirando hacia adelante

To stand on one leg and prove God’s existence is a very different thing from going on one’s knees and thanking Him.

I begin with the principle that all men are bores. Surely no one will prove himself so great a bore as to contradict me in this.

You are welcome,” at the dinner table; that piety consisted in going to communion once a year. This I saw, and I laughed.

Just as in earthly life lovers long for the moment when they are able to breathe forth their love for each other, to let their souls blend in a soft whisper, so the mystic longs...

It belongs to the imperfection of everything human that man can only attain his desire by passing through its opposite.

The proud person always wants to do the right thing, the great thing. But because he wants to do it in his own strength, he is fighting not with man, but with God.

Our life always expresses the result of our dominant thoughts.

What if everything in the world were a misunderstanding, what if laughter were really tears?

Do you not know that there comes a midnight hour when every one has to throw off his mask? Do you believe that life will always let itself be mocked? Do you think you can...

Once you label me, you negate me