KIERKEGAARD28

It is perhaps the misfortune of my life that I am interested in far too much and not decisively in any one thing; all my interests are not subordinated but stand on equal footing. [1 June 1835]

It is quite true what philosophy says: that life must be understood backwards. But then one forgets the other principle: that it must be lived forwards. [1843]

It is said that experience makes a man wise. That is a very unreasonable thing to say. If there were nothing still higher than expereince, experience would make him mad. [1843]

It is said to have chanced in England that a man was attacked on the highway by a robber who had made himself unrecognizable by wearing a big wig. He falls upon the traveler, seizes him by the throat and shouts, "Your purse!" He gets the purse and keeps it, but the wig he throws away. A poor man comes along the same road, puts it on and arrives at the next town where the traveler had already denounced the crime, he is arrested, is recognized by the traveler, who takes his oath that he is the man. By chance, the robber is present in the court-room, sees the misunderstanding, turns to the judge and says, "It seems to me that the traveler has regard rather to the wig than to the man," and he asks permission to make a trial. He puts on the wig, seizes the traveler by the throat, crying, "Your purse!"--and the traveler recognizes the robber and offers to swear to it--the only trouble is that already he has taken an oath.
So it is, in one way or another, with every man who has a "what" and is not attentive to the "how": he swears, he takes his oath, he runs errands, he ventures life and blood, he is executed--all on account of the wig. [Concluding Unscientific Postscript]

It is subjectivity that Christianity is concerned with, and it is only in subjectivity that its truth exists, if it exists at all; objectively, Christianity has absolutely no existence. If its truth happens to be in only a single subject, it exists in him alone; and there is greater Christian joy in heaven over this one individual than over universal history and the System, which as objective entities are incommensurable with that which is Christian. [Concluding Unscientific Postscript]

It is thought that joining the society allows you to develop a higher perfection--thanks, no! [1848]

It is very important in life to know when your cue comes. [1836]

It reminded me deeply and vividly that after all she does not have first priority in my life. No, no, yet humanly speaking yes, certainly, how much I would like to express the fact that she has, and shall have, the first and only priority in my life--but God has first priority. My engagement to her and breaking off the engagement are really my God-relationship--are, if I may be so bold, divinely speaking my engagement to God. [10 September 1852, after passing Regine on a walk, 12 years after his engagement to her, and neither of them speaking]

It requires moral courage to grieve; it requires religious courage to rejoice. [End of Journey, 1840]

It requires more courage to suffer than to act, more courage to forget than to remember, and perhaps the most wonderful thing about God is that he can forget man's sins. [1841]