KIERKEGAARD46

The only thing that consoles me is that I could lay myself down to die and then, in my last hour, dare to confess what I cannot so long as I live, the love which makes me as unhappy as it makes me happy. [1841]

The paradox in Christian truth is invariably due to the fact that it is truth as it exists for God. The standard of measure and the end is superhuman; and there is only one relationship possible: faith.

The parson can only preach in general terms--but the preacher within thee is exactly the opposite: he preaches solely and alone about thee, to thee, in thee. [Two Discourses at the Communion on Fridays]

The person who wills one thing that is not the Good, he does not truly will one thing. It is a delusion, an illusion, a deception, a self-deception that he wills only one thing. For in his innermost being his is, he is bound to be, double-minded. Therefore the Apostle says, "Purify your hearts ye double-minded," that is, purify your hearts of double-mindedness; in other words, let your heart in truth will only one thing, for therein is the heart's purity. [Purity of Heart]

...the personality announces its inner infinity... [Either/Or, VOL. II: EQUILIBRIUM BETWEEN THE AESTHETICAL AND THE ETHICAL IN THE COMPOSITION OF PERSONALITY]

The plan was a task for self-activity, and to impose my own understanding on the reader seemed to me an offensive and impertinent meddling. [1844]

The politicians accuse me of contradicting them, but it is they who are the masters at that, for they always have one more person to contradict: themselves. [1838]

The present age tends toward a mathematical equality in which it takes so and so many to make one individual. [The Present Age]

The present human race is so devoid of spirit that people have altogether ceased thinking of their worth in terms of being "spirit"; their only self-respect is in more or less animal terms. [1854]

The proofs which Scripture presents for Christ's divinity--His miracles, His Resurrection from the dead, His Ascension into heaven--are therefore only for faith, that is, they are not "proofs," they have no intention of proving that all this agrees perfectly with reason; on the contrary they would prove that it conflicts with reason and therefore is an object of faith. [Training in Christianity]

The public is a creation of the press when the latter alone is to be active in a passionless age. [1845-6]

The public is a host, more numerous than all the peoples together, but it is a body which can never be reviewed; it cannot even be represented, because it is an abstraction. [The Present Age]

The public is the most idea-less thing of all. In fact, it is the very opposite of the idea. The public is number. [1854]