Quotes about Existence

However, a self, every instant it exists, is in process of becoming, for the self [potentially] does not actually exist, it is only that which it is to become. In so far as the self does not become itself, it is not its own self; but not to be one's own self is despair.

The way of objective reflection turns the individual into something accidental, and thus turns existence into an indifferent, vanishing something.

Fortvivlelsens Misforhold er ikke et simpelt Misforhold, men et Misforhold i et Forhold, der forholder sig til sig selv, og er sat af et Andet, saa Misforholdet i hiint for sig værende Forhold tillige reflekterer sig uendeligt i Forholdet til den Magt, som satte det.

Behind the world we live in, in the distant background, lies another world standing in roughly the same relation to the former as the stage one sometimes sees in the theatre behind the real stage stands to the latter.

men var han ikke Synthese, kunde han slet ikke fortvivle, og var Synthesen ikke oprindeligt fra Guds Haand i det rette Forhold, kunde han heller ikke fortvivle.

The greatest hazard of all, losing one's self, can occur very quietly in the world, as if it were nothing at all.

Subjectivity is truth and if subjectivity is in existing, then, if I may put it this way, Christianity is a perfect fit.

Only the Eternal is always appropriate and always present, is always true. Only the Eternal applies to each human being

Numbers are the most dangerous of all illusions

How then did Abraham exist? He believed. This is the paradox which keeps him upon the sheer edge and which he cannot make clear to any other person, for the paradox is that he as the individual puts himself in an absolute relation to the Absolute.

Remember, one lives only once; if it is neglected, if you do not come to suffer, if you avoid it—it is eternally irreparable

What matters is to find my purpose, to see what it really is that God wills that I shall do; the crucial thing is to find a truth that is truth for me, to find the idea for which I am willing to live and die