Soren Kierkegaard

I must find a truth that is true for me.

The tyrant dies and his rule is over; the martyr dies and his rule begins.

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

To be a teacher in the right sense is to be a learner. Instruction begins when you, the teacher, learn from the learner, put yourself in his place so that you may understand what he understands and the way he understands it.

It belongs to the imperfection of everything human that man can only attain his desire by passing through its opposite.

If I have ventured wrongly, very well, life then helps me with its penalty. But if I haven't ventured at all, who helps me then?

How absurd men are! They never use the liberties they have, they demand those they do not have. They have freedom of thought, they demand freedom of speech.

I begin with the principle that all men are bores. Surely no one will prove himself so great a bore as to contradict me in this.

I feel as if I were a piece in a game of chess, when my opponent says of it: That piece cannot be moved.

I see it all perfectly; there are two possible situations - one can either do this or that. My honest opinion and my friendly advice is this: do it or do not do it - you will regret both.

Personality is only ripe when a man has made the truth his own.