Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Soren Kierkegaard Quotes

Since it came up in the comments of another post, here are a few quotes from Soren Kierkegaard for your entertainment:

Listen to the cry of a woman in labor at the hour of giving birth - look at the dying man’s struggle at his last extremity, and then tell me whether something that begins and ends thus could be intended for enjoyment.

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.

Most men pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry past it.

Once you label me you negate me.

People commonly travel the world over to see rivers and mountains, new stars, garish birds, freak fish, grotesque breeds of human; they fall into an animal stupor that gapes at existence and they think they have seen something.

People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.

People understand me so poorly that they don’t even understand my complaint about them not understanding me.

Since boredom advances and boredom is the root of all evil, no wonder, then, that the world goes backwards, that evil spreads. This can be traced back to the very beginning of the world. The gods were bored; therefore they created human beings.

Take away paradox from the thinker and you have a professor.

(5) Comments
Posted by Owen at 0734 hrs
Culture

  1. 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.

    What a twit…

    G K Chesterton would flat-out contradict that “bore” statement, do it with verve and style, and leave Kirkegaard in the dustbin of history, where he belongs.

    Posted by dad29 on December 30, 2008 at 1054 hrs


  2. “leave Kierkegaard in the dustbin of history, where he belongs.”

    Kierkegaard arguably did more to influence every vein of philosophy that followed him than than any other thinker in the last 150 years and, frankly, makes Chesterton look like merely a charming wit of little substance.

    Posted by JB on December 30, 2008 at 1806 hrs


  3. G.K. Chesterton ‘a charming wit of little substance’?  I’ve read many of his readings and I didn’t get that impression.  There’s his Father Brown mysteries that could go on a par with Sherlock Holmes’ mysteries.  Father Brown was a simple priest with a profound understanding of human evil.  Chesterton rips Holbrook Jackson’s book ‘Platitudes in the Making’ with (green) penciled commentaries on many of Jackson’s comments.  An example: Jackson writes; Socialism aspires to make the world fit for supreme beings.  Modern civilization provides no place for them.  Chesterton’s reply;  There will always be only one place for supreme beings; outside the city and called The Place of The Skull (Golgotha). There’s a lot more to Chesterton as well as to Kierkegaard.  These quotes should prick our curiosity into reading the works of either man and appreciate those works.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 30, 2008 at 2148 hrs


  4. I don’t think JB was calling Chesterton names, although he or she can speak on their own behalf, so much as placing Kierkegaard far above him in ranks of thinkers and philosophers. I definitely agree. And I like Chesterton, too. (I just bought Chesterton’s proto-spy novel for my brother-in-law for Christmas.)

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 31, 2008 at 0801 hrs


  5. Frankly dad29, go **** yourself; Kierkegaard is a genius of the first caliber. Chesterson doesn’t even come close.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 01, 2009 at 0024 hrs


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