Søren Kierkegaard has always just been a name, not sure why but he’s never actually captured my attention until today when I came across his name in an article and had time to sidetrack into trying to find out more about him. Surfing the web my first stop was a list of his famous quotes and one after another I loved them, only been through dozens, the list includes almost 900. I mean one after the another are, out of the park, in an all American home run sort of way. I love em.
“The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.”“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.”
“People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.”
“Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.”
“The most common form of despair is not being who you are.”
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”
“The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly.”
“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.”
― Soren Kierkegaard
Then looking further, found out he’s a big Christian, almost chased me away, but I’m figuring I might as well set that aside for right now and learn a little about him.
Anyone here familiar with Kierkegaard and his story and outlook?