KIERKEGAARD45

The more one goes for the general survey, the easier it is, for when the material is so huge, one still seems to be saying something with these completely abstract observations which everyone knows by heart. The more concrete the task, the more difficult it is. [1845]

The most fatal thing of all is to staisfy a want which is not yet felt, so that without waiting till the want is present, one anticipates it, likely also uses stimulants to bring about something which is supposed to be a want, and then satisfies it. And this is shocking! And yet this is what they do in the religious sphere, whereby they really are cheating men out of what constitutes the significance of life, and helping people to waste life. [Attack Upon "Christendom"]

...The most terrible fight is not when there is one opinion against another, the most terrible is when two men say the same thing--and fight about the interpretation, and this interpretation involves a difference of quality.

The New Testament puts it in this way: "Give up all these trifles, this egoistic trifling with which people at large fill their lives, business, marriage, having children, being something in the world; drop it, make a complete break with it--and let your life be dedicated to loving God, to being sacrificed for the human race, 'Be salt'!" ["Our Age's Christianity", 1854]

The object of faith is not a doctrine, for then the relationship would be intellectual, and it would be of importance not to botch it, but to realize the maximum intellectual relationship... The object of faith is the reality of the teacher, that the teacher really exists. The answer of faith is therefore unconditionally yes or no. For the answer of faith is not concerned as to whether a doctrine is true or not, nor with respect to a teacher, whether his teaching is true or not; it is the answer to a question concerning a fact: "Do you or do you not suppose that he has really existed?" And the answer, it must be noted, is with infinite passion. [Concluding Unscientific Postscript]

The one who truly loves does not love once and for all. Nor does he use a part of his love, and then again another part. For to change it into small coins is not to use it rightly. No, he loves with all of his love. It is wholly present in each expression. He continues to give it away as a whole, and yet he keeps it intact as a whole, in his heart. Wonderful riches! When the miser has gathered all the world's gold in sordidness--then he has become poor. When the lover gives away his whole love, he keeps it entire--in the purity of the heart. Shall a man in truth will one thing, then this one thing that he wills must be such that it remains unaltered in all changes, so that by willing it he can win immutability. If it changes continually, then he himself becomes changeable, double-minded, and unstable. And this continual change is nothing else than impurity. [Purity of Heart]

The only honest people in this world are merchants, since they at least are honest enough to admit publicly that they cheat. ["The Honest World", 1854]