Søren Kierkegaard

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

"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."

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

"The paradox in Christian truth is invariably due to the fact that it is the truth that exists for God. The standard of measure and the end is superhuman; and there is only one relationship possible: faith."

"The most common form of despair is not being who you are."

"The paradox in Christian truth is invariably due to the fact that it is the truth that exists for God. The standard of measure and the end is superhuman; and there is only one relationship possible: faith."

"No woman in maternity confinement can have stranger and more impatient wishes than I have."

"For I have trained myself and am training myself always to be able to dance lightly in the service of thought"

"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 a genuine interest in those who make everything easy, I conceived it as my task to create difficulties everywhere."

"Philosophy cannot and should not give us an account of faith, but should understand itself and know just what it has indeed to offer, without taking anything away, least of all cheating people out of something by making them think it is nothing."

"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards."

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

"Sitting calmly on a ship in fair weather is not a metaphor for having faith; but when the ship has sprung a leak, then enthusiastically to keep the ship afloat by pumping and not to seek the harbor--that is the metaphor for having faith. (Concluding Unscientific Postscript)"

"Therefore do not deceive yourself! Of all deceivers fear most yourself!"

"The stone that was rolled before Christ's tomb might appropriately be called the philosopher's stone because its removal gave not only the pharisees but, now for 1800 years, the philosophers so much to think about."

"And when the hourglass has run out, the hourglass of temporality, when the noise of secular life has grown silent and its restless or ineffectual activism has come to an end, when everything around you is still, as it is in eternity, then eternity asks you and every individual in these millions and millions about only one thing: whether you have lived in despair or not."

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

"There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true."

"And when the hourglass has run out, the hourglass of temporality, when the noise of secular life has grown silent and its restless or ineffectual activism has come to an end, when everything around you is still, as it is in eternity, then eternity asks you and every individual in these millions and millions about only one thing: whether you have lived in despair or not."

"Faith is the highest passion in a human being. Many in everygeneration may not come that far, but none comes further."