Faith is the highest passion in a human being. Many in every generation may not come that far, but none comes further.
Soren KierkegaardRead
To stand on one leg and prove God's existence is a very different thing from going on one's knees and thanking him.
Interpretation
The quote contrasts intellectual proof of faith with the humility of gratitude.
Kierkegaard emphasizes the difference between attempting to rationalize or prove the existence of God through philosophical arguments and the act of genuine worship through gratitude. While the former can be seen as a superficial or intellectual exercise, the latter requires sincere humility and personal acknowledgment of something greater than oneself.
In practice
A discussion about the nature of faith in a college philosophy class.
Faith is the highest passion in a human being. Many in every generation may not come that far, but none comes further.
Men think that it is impossible for a human being to love his enemies, for enemies are hardly able to endure the sight of one another. Well, then, shut your eyes--and your enemy looks just like your neighbor.
How did I get into the world? Why was I not asked about it and why was I not informed of the rules and regulations but just thrust into the ranks as if I had been bought by a peddling shanghaier of human beings? How did I get involved in this big enterprise called actuality? Why should I be involved? Isn't it a matter of choice? And if I am compelled to be involved, where is the managerβI have something to say about this. Is there no manager? To whom shall I make my complaint?
A possibility is a hint from God. One must follow it.
And when the hourglass has run out, the hourglass of temporality, when the noise of secular life has grown silent and its restless or ineffectual activism has come to an end, when everything around you is still, as it is in eternity, then eternity asks you and every individual in these millions and millions about only one thing: whether you have lived in despair or not.
I am so stupid that I cannot understand philosophy; the antithesis of this is that philosophy is so clever that it cannot comprehend my stupidity. These antitheses are mediated in a higher unity; in our common stupidity.
I sought to hear the voice of God and climbed the topmost steeple, but God declared: "Go down again - I dwell among the people.
He was a tool of the boss, without brains or backbone.
Our nation was not founded because we all looked alike, or prayed alike, or descended from the same family tree. But our founders, in their genius, in this, the oldest constitutional democracy, put forth on this earth the idea that all are created equal; that we all have inalienable rights.
Where Slavery is, there Liberty cannot be; and where Liberty is, there Slavery cannot be.
After reaching 50, I began to wonder what the root of life is.
The future of India lies in its villages
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