Tuesday, June 14, 2011

I am not alone

It really is quite amazing when you stumble upon a quote from a historical figure that so precisely reflects your state of mind that it gives you a slight chill when you first read it. Such was my reaction upon reading a quote from Kierkegaard on Wikipedia's entry on existentialism:
What I really lack is to be clear in my mind what I am to do, not what I am to know, except in so far as a certain knowledge must precede every action. The thing is to understand myself, to see what God really wishes me to do: the thing is to find a truth which is true for me, to find the idea for which I can live and die. ... I certainly do not deny that I still recognize an imperative of knowledge and that through it one can work upon men, but it must be taken up into my life, and that is what I now recognize as the most important thing.
—Søren Kierkegaard, Letter to Peter Wilhelm Lund dated August 31, 1835, emphasis added

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