KIERKEGAARD21

I feel as if I were a piece in a game of chess, when my opponent says of it: That piece shall not be moved. [Either/Or, VOL. I: DIAPSALMATA]

I had hoped I would become seasick, or failing that, all the other passengers. ["Kallundborg", 19 July 1840]

I have just come back from a party where I was the life and soul. Witticisms flowed from my lips. Everyone laughed and admired me--but I left, yes, that dash should be as long as the radii of the earth's orbit-------------and wanted to shoot myself. [1836]

"I have the honour of serving a higher power into whose hands I have put my life." [1849]

I had to hide such a tremendous amount from her, had to base the whole thing upon something untrue. [My relation to "her", August 24, 1849]

I have nothing to reproach her for, it is I who have changed, I forgive her everything if only she can forgive me for being so imprudent as to let her take a step so decisive. I know indeed in my heart that so far from talking her into it I rather warned her against me. [Either/Or, VOL. II: THE AESTHETIC VALIDITY OF MARRIAGE]

I know I have truthfuly loved every person. However many have shown me enmity I myself have no enemy. [from an appendix (4) to The Point of View of My Activity as an Author which wasn't used... 1848]

I know my moods, but in a letter I can't, as when I'm speaking, instantly dispel the impression when I see it is becoming too strong. [1841]

I know too that the highest conceivable enjoyment lies in being loved; to be loved is higher than anything else in the world. [Either/Or, VOL. I: DIARY OF THE SEDUCER]

I may not be so very wide of the mark if I say: man is a nonsense--and that it is with the help of language that he is so.
Through language everyone participates in the highest--but participating in the highest through language in the sense of merely talking about the highest is just as ironical as being a spectator of the royal dinner-table from the gallery. [" 'Man' ", 1854]

I may well suffer as a result, but I will not let go of the idea. If people press harder on me, well, I shall suffer more, but I cannot let go of the idea, and so the counter-pressure which I exert will become even stronger. I find no pleasure in this situation, but in the direction of the idea I can do no other, and religiously I feel myself under an obligation. ["Lines About Myself", 1849]

I never received that youthful impression of a long life stretching ahead (for me there was literally never more than half a year, and hardly that) [1849]