“Let others mock at you, oppose you, when you are under the influence of any passion; do not be in the least offended with those who mock at or oppose you, for they do you good; crucify your self-love and acknowledge the wrong, the error of your heart. But have the deepest pity for those who mock at words and works of faith and piety, of righteousness; for those who oppose the good which you are doing... God preserve you - getting exasperated at them.” HeartSelfChristianPassionInfluenceSelf LoveErrorsPityPreservesAcknowledgeOrthodoxRighteousnessOffendedPietyOrthodox ChristianMock Author:Soren Kierkegaard
“It is only all too easy to understand the requirements contained in God's Word ('Give all your goods to the poor.' 'If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the left.' 'If anyone takes your coat, let him have your cloak also. Rejoice always.' 'Count it sheer joy when you meet various temptations' etc.). The most ignorant, poor creature cannot honestly deny being able to understand God's requirements. But it is tough on the flesh to will to understand it and to then act accordingly. It is not a question of interpretation, but action.” IfsGivingAbleActionChristianJoyTurnsLeftEasyPoorCreaturesToughVariousDenyStrikesFleshHonestlyIgnorantTemptationEtcOrthodoxGoodsInterpretationRejoiceCheeksSheerRequirementsCoatsOrthodox ChristianCloaksSheer Joy Author:Soren Kierkegaard
“...it is not the obscure passages in Scripture that bind you but the ones you understand. With these you are to comply at once. If you understood only one passage in all of Scripture, well, then you must do that first of all. It will be this passage God asks you about. Do not first sit down and ponder the obscure passages. God's Word is given in order that you shall act according to it, not that you gain expertise in interpreting it.” IfsFirstsWellsChristianOrderAsksGivenUnderstoodGainsDown AndScriptureOrthodoxPassagesObscureExpertiseOrthodox ChristianPonderingInterpreting Author:Soren Kierkegaard
“How could it occur to anyone to demonstrate that God exists unless one has already allowed Himself to ignore Him? A king's existence is demonstrated by way of subjection and submissiveness. Do you want to try and demonstrate that the king exists? Will you do so by offering a string of proofs, a series of arguments? No. If you are serious, you will demonstrate the king's existence by your submission, by the way you live. And so it is with demonstrating God's existence. It is accomplished not by proofs but by worship. Any other way is but a thinker's pious bungling.” IfsWayWantTryingChristianExistenceSeriousKingsWorshipArgumentSeriesProofAccomplishedStringsOrthodoxThinkerOfferingSubmissionOrthodox ChristianPiousGod ExistsDemonstratingSubjection Author:Soren Kierkegaard
“...the reason for [this age's] anxiety and unrest is because in one direction, 'truth' increases in scope and quantity - via science and technology - while in the other, certainty and confidence steadily decline. Our age is a master in developing truths while being wholly indifferent to certitude. It lacks confidence in the good.” ReasonAgeChristianTechnologyMastersAnxietyIncreaseCertaintyDevelopingOrthodoxQuantityDeclineIndifferentScopeOrthodox ChristianScience And TechnologyOne DirectionUnrestCertitude Author:Soren Kierkegaard
“The truth is lived before it is understood. It must be fought for, tested, and appropriated. Truth is the way... Anyone will easily understand it if he just gives himself to it.” IfsWayGivingChristianTruth IsUnderstoodOrthodoxTestedOrthodox Christian Author:Soren Kierkegaard
“Truth is not something you can appropriate easily and quickly. You certainly cannot sleep or dream yourself to the truth. No, you must be tried, do battle, and suffer if you are to acquire the truth for yourself. It is a sheer illusion to think that in relation to the truth there is an abridgement, a short cut that dispenses with the necessity for struggling for it.” IfsThinkingDreamChristianSufferingSleepStruggleCuttingTruth IsBattleIllusionRelationAcquireAppropriateOrthodoxSheerOrthodox ChristianShort Cuts Author:Soren Kierkegaard
“...knowing God is the condition for the sanctification of a human being by God's assistance and according to His intention. Wherever God is, there He is always creating... He wants to create a new human being. To need God is to become new. And to know God is the crucial thing.” KnowsWantNeedsHumansChristianHuman BeingsKnowingConditionsCreatingIntentionOrthodoxCrucialAssistanceKnowing GodOrthodox ChristianSanctificationNeed GodGod Is There Author:Soren Kierkegaard
“... the more one needs God the more perfect he is. To need God is nothing to be ashamed of but is perfection itself. It is the saddest thing in the world if a human being goes through life without discovering that he needs God!” IfsWorldNeedsHumansChristianHuman BeingsPerfectPerfectionAshamedOrthodoxDiscoveringOrthodox ChristianSaddestNeed God Author:Soren Kierkegaard
“It was not to save a nation that Abraham went to sacrifice Isaac, nor to appease angry gods... Then why does Abraham do it? For God's sake... He does it for the sake of God because God demands proof of his faith... He was not justified by being virtuous, but by being an individual submitted to God in faith.” DoeChristianIndividualNationsSacrificeDemandAngrySakeProofOrthodoxVirtuousJustifiedOrthodox ChristianAbrahamIsaacAppease Author:Soren Kierkegaard
“Busyness, keeping up with others, hustling hither and yon, makes it almost impossible for an individual to form a heart.” HeartChristianFormIndividualImpossibleOrthodoxOrthodox ChristianHustle Author:Soren Kierkegaard
“Christianity does not oppose debauchery and uncontrollable passions and the like as much as it opposes... flat mediocrity, this nauseating atmosphere, this homey, civil togetherness, where admittedly great crimes, wild excesses, and powerful aberrations cannot easily occur - but where God's unconditional demand has even greater difficulty in accomplishing what it requires: the majestic obedience of submission.” DoeChristianPassionPowerfulChristianityGreaterCrimeDemandDifficultyObedienceAtmosphereFlatsOrthodoxMediocrityExcessSubmissionUnconditionalTogethernessOrthodox ChristianMajesticUncontrollableAberrationDebauchery Author:Soren Kierkegaard
“The greatest danger to Christianity is, I contend, not heresies, not heterodoxies, not atheists, not profane secularism - no, but the kind of orthodoxy which is cordial drivel, mediocrity served up sweet. There is nothing that so insidiously displaces the majestic as cordiality.” KindChristianChristianityDangerSweetAtheistOrthodoxMediocritySecularismHeresyOrthodoxyOrthodox ChristianMajesticProfaneDrivelCordiality Author:Soren Kierkegaard
“When you say 'Yes' or promise something, you can very easily deceive yourself and others also, as if you had already done what you promised. It is easy to think that by making a promise you have at least done part of what you promised to do, as if the promise itself were something of value. Not at all! In fact, when you do not do what you promise, it is a long way back to the truth.” IfsThinkingWayLongDoneFactsChristianValuesEasyPromiseOrthodoxDeceivingLong WayOrthodox Christian Author:Soren Kierkegaard
“Where unclarity resides, there is temptation, and there it proves only too easily the stronger. Wherever there is ambiguity, wherever there is wavering, there is disobedience down at the bottom.” ChristianProveStrongerBottomTemptationOrthodoxAmbiguityDisobedienceOrthodox ChristianWavering Author:Soren Kierkegaard
“...there is one thing that all Satan's cunning and all the snares of temptation cannot take by surprise - an undivided will.” ChristianOne ThingSurpriseTemptationSatanOrthodoxCunningOrthodox ChristianSnares Author:Soren Kierkegaard
“God is present in the moment of choice, not in order to watch but in order to be chosen. Therefore, each person must choose. Terrible is the battle, in a person's innermost being, between God and the world. The crowning risk involved lies in the possession of choice.” WorldPersonsMomentsChristianLyingOrderChoicesWatchesRiskInvolvedTerribleBattlePossessionChosenOrthodoxOrthodox Christian Author:Soren Kierkegaard
“...it is presumptuous ridicule of God if someone thinks that only the person who desires great wealth chooses mammon. Alas, the person who insists on having a penny without God, wants to have a penny all for himself. He thereby chooses mammon. A penny is enough, the choice is made, he has chosen mammon; that it is little makes not the slightest difference. The love of God is hatred of the world and love of the world hatred of God.” IfsThinkingWorldWantLittlesPersonsMadeEnoughChristianDesireChoicesDifferencesWealthHatredAnd LoveChosenGod LoveOrthodoxAlasRidiculePenniesOrthodox ChristianWithout GodPresumptuousWorld And Love Author:Soren Kierkegaard
“...a human being not only can choose but... he must choose... for in this way God retains His honor while at the same time has a fatherly concern for humankind. Though God has lowered Himself to being that which can be chosen, yet each person must on his part choose. God is not mocked. Therefore the matter stands thus: If a person avoids choosing, this is the same as the presumption of choosing the world.” IfsWorldWayHumansPersonsMatterChristianHuman BeingsHonorConcernChosenOrthodoxHumankindOrthodox ChristianPresumption Author:Soren Kierkegaard
“...the greatest thing each person can do is to give himself to God utterly and unconditionally - weaknesses, fears, and all. For God loves obedience more than good intentions or second-best offerings, which are all too often made under the guise of weakness.” GivingPersonsMadeChristianCan DoWeaknessIntentionObedienceGod LoveOrthodoxOfferingOrthodox ChristianGood IntentionsGuiseSecond Best Author:Soren Kierkegaard
“A good decision is our will to do everything we can within our power. It means to serve God with all we've got, be it little or much. Every person can do that.” MeanLittlesPersonsChristianCan DoDecisionOrthodoxServing GodOrthodox ChristianGood Decision Author:Soren Kierkegaard
“Do you know of any more overwhelming and humbling expression for God's condescension and extravagance towards us human beings than that He places Himself, so to say, on the same level of choice with the world, just so that we may be able to choose; that God, if language dare speak thus, woos humankind - that He, the eternally strong one, woos sapless humanity? Yet, how insignificant is the young lover's choice between her pursuers by comparison with this choice between God and the world.” IfsKnowsWorldHumansMayAbleChristianYoungHumanityChoicesSpeakLanguageStrongHuman BeingsLevelsExpressionLoversDareComparisonOrthodoxDo You KnowOverwhelmingHumankindInsignificantOrthodox ChristianYoung LoveHumblingExtravaganceCondescensionCondescension And Author:Soren Kierkegaard
