det gjælder om at finde en Sandhed, som er Sandhed for mig, at finde den Idee, for hvilken jeg vil leve og døe
The point is to find a truth which is truth for me, to find the idea for which I want to live and die. Journal, 1835.
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fordi Troen netop begynder der, hvor Tænkningen hører op
Because faith begins precisely where thinking leaves off. Johannes de silentio, Fear and Trembling.
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saaledes er Subjektiviteten Sandheden
Thus subjectivity is truth. Johannes Climacus, Postscript.
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Selvet er et Forhold, der forholder sig til sig selv
The self is a relation that relates itself to itself. Anti-Climacus, The Sickness unto Death.
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at citere den respektive pseudonyme Forfatters Navn, ikke mit
To quote the name of the respective pseudonymous author, not mine. Kierkegaard in his own name, 1846: the rule we follow on this page.
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ikke et eneste Ord af mig selv
There is thus in the pseudonymous books not a single word of my own. A First and Last Explanation, 1846.
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Uden Risico ingen Tro
Without risk, no faith. Johannes Climacus, Postscript.
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Misconceptions
False
In Fear and Trembling, Kierkegaard approves of killing in God's name.
The book is signed Johannes de silentio, who says he does not understand Abraham and cannot make the movement of faith. His thesis is a dilemma: either faith is above ethics, or Abraham is a murderer. He gives no rule for action, and he stresses that one may be mistaken about God.
Nuanced
For Kierkegaard, "subjectivity is truth" means: to each his own truth.
The phrase is Johannes Climacus's and concerns only truths that involve existence (God, immortality, how to live). A mathematical proposition stays objectively true; it is merely "indifferent" to the existing person.
Nuanced
Kierkegaard thought that whatever you do, you will regret it.
It is an "ecstatic lecture" by "A", the aesthete of Either/Or, whose papers are published by a fictional editor. The second volume answers A with the letters of "B", who defends choice and the ethical life.
False
Kierkegaard, the first existentialist, was an atheist like Sartre.
He was a Christian. He signed religious discourses with his own name, "every word" of which is his, he says. The word "existentialism" only appears in the 20th century; Sartre took up his analyses without his faith.