Kierkegaard: Faith and Wisdom Do Not Come Easily

[I]t is very foolish [. . .] to think that faith and wisdom come that easily, that they come as a matter of course over the years like teeth, a beard, etc. No, whatever a man may arrive at as a matter of course, whatever things may come as a matter of course--faith and wisdom are definitely not among them.

--Soren Kierkegaard, from The Sickness Unto Death

Kierkegaard on Solitude

(Woods. Richmond Hill, GA)

On the whole, the longing for solitude is a sign that there still is spirit in a person and is the measure of what spirit is there. 

--Soren Kierkegaard, from The Sickness unto Death

Just Play the Note

There is something curious about you. Spiritually you are like a flute player who, if he would play the note as it is, could play it but who always wants to make it elaborate, and therefore it becomes false. 

--Soren Kierkegaard, from his draft for The Sickness Unto Death. (Not sure why SK didn't include this in the final book.) 

Smiles and tears

". . . smiles and tears, after all, lie close to one another in a strange way."

--Kierkegaard, from Johannes Climacus

Kierkegaard on existence

". . . whether I am moving in the world of sensate palpability or in the world of thought, I never reason in conclusion to existence, but I reason in conclusion from existence. For example, I do not demonstrate that a stone exists but that something which exists is a stone. The court of law does not demonstrate that a criminal exists but that the accused, who does indeed exists, is a criminal. Whether one wants to call existence an accessorium [addition] or the eternal prius [presupposition], it can never be demonstrated."

--Soren Kierkegaard, from Philosophical Fragments

Some days are just like that

March 9, 1846:

God in heaven, if there were not deep within a man a place where all this can be completely forgotten in communion with thee, who could endure it.

~ Kierkegaard, Journals

Audible moon shine

Oct. 13, 1835:

The real beauty of Lemming’s playing (he is a Danish musician; I heard him at the University Club) was that he stroked the guitar. The vibrations became almost visible, just as when the moon shines on the sea the waves become almost audible.

--Kierkegaard’s Journals