KIERKEGAARD47

The reason why I far prefer the autumn to the spring is because in the autumn one looks up to heaven--in spring at the earth. [1837]

The reason why man is saved by faith and not by works, or more accurately, in faith, is deeper than one thinks. the whole explanation derived from sin is by no means exhaustive. The reason is that, even if man himself accomplished the good, he cannot know that, for then he would have to be omniscient. Therefore no one can argue with our Lord. I dare not call even the most exalted deed, humanly the most noble deed, a good deed, for I must always say: God alone knows if it really was that. So I cannot possibly build my salvation upon it. [1842-3]

The relation between the daily press and authors is as follows. An author writes a coherent and a consistently clearly thought-out presentation of some ideo or other, perhaps even the fruit of many years' labour. This no one reads, but a journalist reviewing the book takes the opportunity, in half an hour, to slap together some rubbish which he gives out to be the author's book. This everyone reads. We see what being an author means in life--he is there to give the journalist an opportunity to write some rubbish which everyone reads. If the author had not existed the journalist would not have had this opportunity--ergo, it is important for authors to be there. [1847]

The religiosity which is to be an advance upon the medieval must find an expression in its devout reflections for the principle that the relgious man will and must exist in the same categories on Monday, and will on Monday actually so exist. [Concluding Unscientific Postscript]

The Scriptures teach: "Judge not, that ye be not judged." This is expressed in the form of a warning, an admonition, but it is as the same time an impossibility. One human cannot judge another ethically, because he cannot understand him except as a possibility. Where therefore anyone attempts to judge another, the expression for his impotence is that he merely judges himself. [Concluding Unscientific Postscript]

The self wants to enjoy the entire satisfaction of making itself into itself, or of developing itself, of being itself; it wants to have the honor of this poetical, this masterly plan according to which it has understood itself. And yet in this masterly plan according to which it has understood itself. And yet in the last resort it is a riddle how it understands itself; just at the instant when it seems to be nearest to having the fabric finished, it can arbitrarily resolve the whole thing into nothing. [The Sickness unto Death]

The so-called social pleasures for which we prepare a week or two in advance amount to so little; on the other hand, even the most insignificant thing may accidentally offer rich material for amusement... Even the most completely developed theory is poverty-stricken compared with the fullness which the man of genius easily discovers in his ubiquity. [Either/Or, VOL. I: THE ROTATION METHOD]

The spirit sometimes ventures too far ahead; the thing then is to grab it in a hurry, enclose it in a coffin and put it on paper, to throw oneself upon it as if it were a felled quarry, bind it, imprison it, deprive it of its element, with cunning, with might, forcibly--it resists--unsparing treatment is permitted. Into secure boxes, books, with it! [1846-7]