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Quote by Soren Kierkegaard

“Satan's despair is absolute because Satan, as pure spirit, is pure consciousness, and for Satan (and all men in his predicament) every increase in consciousness is an increase in despair.”

Quote by Soren Kierkegaard

Author

Soren Kierkegaard
Soren Kierkegaard

Søren Kierkegaard was a 19th-century Danish philosopher known for his existentialist philosophy and profound explorations of religious, ethical, and aesthetic issues. His ideas have had a profound impact on subsequent philosophers and literature. more

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“Yet in another and still more definite sense despair is the sickness unto death. It is indeed very far from being true that, literally understood, one dies of this sickness, or that this sickness ends with bodily death. On the contrary, the torment of despair is precisely this, not to be able to die So it has much in common with the situation of the moribund when he lies and struggles with death, and cannot die. So to be sick unto death is, not to be able to die -- yet not as though there were hope of life; no the hopelessness in this case is that even the last hope, death, is not available. When death is the greatest danger, one hopes for life; but when one becomes acquainted with an even more dreadful danger, one hopes for death. So when the danger is so great that death has become one’s hope, despair is the disconsolateness of not being able to die.”