5 quotes from the Danish philosopher, Søren Kierkegaard, which will inspire you to take life slowly

La Biblioteca Real de Dinamarca, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Do you know what is one of the best feelings in the world?

It’s the feeling you get when you discover that you are not alone. When you find out that there are other people fighting with the same worries, challenges, and speculations you are.  When you find out that you are not an isolated island, but that there are other people who have the same views on life as you have.

And is there anything that can make that feeling of not being along even better?

How about discovering that one of the world’s most important philosophers faced a lot of the same challenges you do?

Therefore, it made me really happy the other day, when I fell over a page with quotes from Søren Kierkegaard. Some of the quotes – as for example the famous one “Life can only be understood backwards but it must be lived forwards” – I already knew, but others were entirely new to me.

When I saw the quotes, I thought: “Hey, that’s me there.” “Wow, that’s all about slow living really, even though they called it something else back then…” and “That totally fits with the 21^st century.”

Maybe you will feel the same way?  Maybe the quotes here will inspire you?  Maybe they will help you say to yourself, that it’s ok to take it slowly?

1) Søren Kierkegaard on being busy

“Of all ridiculous things the most ridiculous seems to me, to be busy.” From Either--Or, Diapsalmat, København 1843.

I am so in agreement.  To be busy is, truly, ridiculous.  To race through life instead of stopping, listening to the birds, looking up at the sky over Amager (an area in Copenhagen on the water) or taking the time to have a serious conversation with a good friend, is useless. It only makes us more stressed.  It only makes us more unhappy.  Many thanks to Kierkegaard for reminding us that it’s foolish to be busy.  

2) Søren Kierkegaard on not being weighed down by others’ expectations

“For the great thing is not to be this or that but to be oneself, and this everyone can be if he wills it.” From Either--Or, Diapsalmat, København 1843.

This is almost more relevant in 2023 than it was in 1843.  It’s as if we have to be something all the time.  We have to put ourselves and our lives on display on social media, as if life is a competition to get the most likes.  Kierkegaard shows us in this quote that that’s not how we become whole people.  It is not the way that we find peace.  We only do it when we dare be ourselves, the imperfect, nuanced individuals, we are. 

3) Søren Kierkegaard on not getting stuck in the past

“Why bother remembering a past that cannot be made into a present?” From Fear and Trembling. Dialektisk Lyrik. 1843.

How often do we get stuck in the past? How often do we go and brood over something that has happened?  How many times do we fill our heads with worry and frustration about something we can do nothing about --  something that lies in the past, but that we can’t change in the present? In my own case, I can definitely say that it’s something I do all too often.  It’s ok to dwell on memories, and melancholy can be a beautiful feeling, but Kierkegaard is right.  It is not worthwhile fixating on negative things, which have already happened in the past.

4. Søren Kierkegaard on not being in tip-top shape and full of surplus energy

“I don't feel like doing anything. I don't feel like riding -- the motion is too powerful; I don't feel like walking -- it is too tiring; I don't feel like lying down, for either I would have to stay down, and I don't feel like doing that, or I would have to get up again, and I don't feel like doing that, either. Summa Summarum: I don't feel like doing anything. ” From Either -- Or, Diapsalmata, 1843.

YES, I thought.  That’s me on gray, wet January days. Me, on the days where you no longer remember when the sun last shone, and when everything you have to do seems entirely unmanageable. This quote makes me feel that it’s ok to feel that way.  That it is maybe entirely natural.  We don’t have to force ourselves to fight against this feeling; on the contrary sometimes something good can actually come out of being lazy.

5. Søren Kierkegaard on the best daily habit, which can make the whole difference

“Above all, do not lose your desire to walk. Every day, I walk myself into a state of well-being & walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it. But by sitting still, & the more one sits still, the closer one comes to feeling ill. Thus if one just keeps on walking, everything will be all right.” Kierkegaard in a letter to his sister-in-law  Henriette (Jette) Kierkegaard (1847).

Finally, Søren Kierkegaard also names one of my absolutely favorite routines when we’re talking about daily habits:  Namely, taking a walk every day. To get out in the fresh air, take one step at a time and feel the earth under our feet was in 1847 and still is today one of the best things we can do for ourselves. It not only helps with our physical condition, but also with our mental health. Walking is one of the two daily habits I swear by (the other is writing) when I want to get my thoughts in order and clear my head.  I really like Kierkegaard’s approach.  As long as we can walk, everything will be ok.

This is how you can use Søren Kierkegaard

Try and think about these 5 quotes.  Write them down and hang them up on your refrigerator or another easily seen place in your home.  Use them as a lodestar, which reminds you that you are standing on the shoulders of others.  That your thoughts are not unnormal, but that people have always had thoughts like that.  That you are playing on the same team as one of Denmark’s greatest thinkers.

I believe that can provide some sense of peace.  In any case, it made me feel better to discover this fellowship with someone who lived a couple of hundred years before me.  Hopefully it can do the same for you?