Quotes from Soren Kierkegaard

God does not think; he creates. He does not exist; he is eternal.

If you want to be loathsome to God, just run with the herd.

It is the normal state of the human heart to try to build its identity around something besides God.

Prayer is a silent surrendering of everything to God.

My tactics were, by God's aid, to employ every means to make it clear what the requirement of Christianity truly is.

The person who praises God is on the tracks of justice.

Seek first God's Kingdom, that is, become like the lilies and the birds, become perfectly silent - then shall the rest be added unto you.

Because of its tremendous solemnity death is the light in which great passions, both good and bad, become transparent, no longer limited by outward appearences.

People settle for a level of despair they can tolerate and call it happiness.

Most men pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry past it.

Happiness is the greatest hiding place for despair.

The door to happiness opens outward.

Hope is passion for what is possible.

Humor (is) intrinsitc to Christianity.

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

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

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

A man prayed, and at first he thought that prayer was talking. But he became more and more quiet until in the end he realized prayer is listening.

Prayer does not change God but it changes him who prays.

Teach me O God not to torture myself not to make a martyr out of myself through stifling reflection but rather teach me to breathe deeply in faith.

All essential knowledge relates to existence, or only such knowledge as has an essential relationship to existence is essential knowledge.

Intelligence has got the upper hand to such an extent that it transforms the real task into an unreal trick and reality into a play.

One can advise comfortably from a safe port.

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