# Søren Kierkegaard's best quotes

From Either/Or to The Sickness unto Death and the journals: Kierkegaard's most quoted lines, in his own spelling and with sources.

- 0 votes · 11 items
- Sep 15, 2023 · Louise Rasmussen
- https://even.best/en/l/2893/s%C3%B8ren-kierkegaard-s-best-quotes

## Top 11

1. **It is quite true what philosophy says, that life must be understood backwards. But one forgets the other principle, that it must be lived forwards.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Journals, 1843.
2. **Purity of heart is to will one thing.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Title of one of his upbuilding discourses, 1847.
3. **Most people rush after pleasure so fast that they rush right past it.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Either/Or.
4. **People understand me so little that they don't even understand my complaints that they don't understand me.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Either/Or I, Diapsalmata.
5. **It happened in a theatre that a fire broke out backstage. The clown came out to inform the audience.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Either/Or I, Diapsalmata; the audience thought it was a joke.
6. **I feel the way a chess piece must feel when the opponent says of it: that piece cannot be moved.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Either/Or I.
7. **The gods were bored, so they created human beings.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Either/Or I, The Rotation of Crops.
8. **Idleness as such is by no means the root of all evil; on the contrary, it is a truly divine life, as long as one is not bored.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Either/Or I, The Rotation of Crops.
9. **A human being is spirit. But what is spirit? Spirit is the self.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — The Sickness unto Death.
10. **Fixed ideas are like a cramp in the foot: the best remedy is to stand on it.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Journals, 6 July 1838.
11. **In general, the need for solitude is a sign that there is spirit in a person after all.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — The Sickness unto Death.

How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.