KIERKEGAARDeitherorequilibrium

And this is the pitiful thing to one who contemplates human life, that so many live on in a quiet state of perdition; they outlive themselves, not in the sense that the content of life is successively unfolding and now is possessed in this expanded state, but they live their lives, as it were, outside of themselves, they vanish like shadows, their immortal soul is blown away, and they are not alarmed by the problem of its immortality, for they are already in a state of dissolution before they die.

But he who cannot reveal himself cannot love, and he who cannot love is the most unhappy man of all.

Do you not know that there comes a midnight hour when every one has to throw off his mask? Do you believe that life will always let itself be mocked? Do you think you can slip away a little before midnight in order to avoid this? Or are you not terrified by it?

I think of my early youth, when without clearly comprehending what it is to make a choice I listened with childish trust to the talk of my elders, and the instant of choice was solemn and venerable, although in choosing I was only following the instructions of another person.

My young friend, suppose there was no one who troubled himself to guess your riddle--what joy, then, would you have in it?

Perhaps you will succeed without that in accomplishing much, perhaps even in astonishing the world... and yet you will miss the highest thing, the only thing which truly has significance--perhaps you will gain the whole world and lose your own self.

So, like a Cato, I shout at you my either/or, and yet not like a Cato, for my soul has not yet acquired the resigned coldness which he possessed. But I know that only this incantation, if I have the strength for it, will be capable of rousing you, not to an activity of thought, for of that you have no lack, but to earnestness of spirit.

...the personality announces its inner infinity...

"Yes, I perceive perfectly that there are two possibilities, one can either do this or that. My sincere opinion and my friendly counsel is as follows: Do it, or don't do it--you will regret both."