{ "type": "book", "site": { "name": "Leafy Quotes", "language": "en", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com" }, "formats": "Every page has two versions with the same data: JSON (the page address + .json) and markdown (the page address + .md). Append .json or .md to any `url` in this document.", "title": "Fear and Trembling", "slug": "fear-and-trembling", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/soren-kierkegaard/fear-and-trembling", "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/soren-kierkegaard/fear-and-trembling.json", "markdown": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/soren-kierkegaard/fear-and-trembling.md", "author": { "name": "Søren Kierkegaard", "slug": "soren-kierkegaard", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/soren-kierkegaard" }, "cover": "https://quivercdn.com/covers/penguin-classics/soren-kierkegaard/fear-and-trembling_978-01-4139-588-3.jpg", "quotes_count": 15, "quotes": [ { "id": "d9c7702f-93e7-4394-866f-59731a22fcc9", "slug": "faust-fulfills-this", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/soren-kierkegaard/fear-and-trembling/faust-fulfills-this", "text": "Faust fulfills this idea. Anyone who has a notion of what it means for a person to live on spirit also knows what the hunger of doubt means and knows that the doubter hungers just as much for the daily bread of life as for the nourishment of spirit.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 109, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "doubt", "slug": "doubt", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/doubt" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fear_and_Trembling#Problema_III", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T07:01:59" }, { "id": "8190fdb3-cb7c-4694-865d-7eb463a70c74", "slug": "faith-is-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/soren-kierkegaard/fear-and-trembling/faith-is-the", "text": "Faith is the highest passion in a man. There are perhaps many in every generation who do not even reach it, but no one gets further.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "faith", "slug": "faith", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/faith" }, { "name": "passion", "slug": "passion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/passion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fear_and_Trembling#Epilogue", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T07:01:59" }, { "id": "d6d1ed8b-e00e-4096-a58e-b1d030c3a1e8", "slug": "a-young-swain", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/soren-kierkegaard/fear-and-trembling/a-young-swain", "text": "A young swain falls in love with a princess,29 and the whole content of his life consists in this love, and yet the situation is such that it is impossible for it to be realized, impossible for it to be translated from ideality into reality. The slaves of paltriness, the frogs in life's swamp, will naturally cry out, \"Such a love is foolishness. The rich brewer's widow is a match fully as good and respectable.\" Let them croak in the swamp undisturbed.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "love", "slug": "love", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fear_and_Trembling#Problemata:Preliminary_Expectoration", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T07:01:58" }, { "id": "d400ecdb-ef14-4e50-a5d0-74f5198fd9d9", "slug": "when-the-child-must", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/soren-kierkegaard/fear-and-trembling/when-the-child-must", "text": "When the child must be weaned, the mother too is not without sorrow at the thought that she and the child are separated more and more, that the child which first lay under her heart and later reposed upon her breast will be so near to her no more. So they mourn together for the brief period of mourning. Happy the person who has kept the child as near and needed not to sorrow any more!", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "children", "slug": "children", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/children" }, { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fear_and_Trembling#Prelude", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T07:01:58" }, { "id": "9505a56d-e52f-4561-9533-d4c5c169ef4a", "slug": "from-the-external", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/soren-kierkegaard/fear-and-trembling/from-the-external", "text": "From the external and visible world comes the old adage: “Only one who works gets bread.” Oddly enough, the adage does not fit the world in which it is most at home, for imperfection is the fundamental law of the external world, and here it happens again and again that he who does not work does get bread, and he who sleeps gets more abundantly than he who works. In the external world, everything belongs to the possessor.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 27, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "work", "slug": "work", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/work" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fear_and_Trembling#Problemata:Preliminary_Expectoration", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T07:01:58" }, { "id": "879bf335-482a-46e8-b5b1-886cbd85deea", "slug": "but-abraham-believed", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/soren-kierkegaard/fear-and-trembling/but-abraham-believed", "text": "But Abraham believed, therefore he was young; for he who always hopes for the best becomes old, and he who is always prepared for the worst grows early, but he who believes preserves an eternal youth.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 33, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "faith", "slug": "faith", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/faith" }, { "name": "youth", "slug": "youth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fear_and_Trembling#A_Panegyric_Upon_Abraham", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T07:01:58" }, { "id": "80026ed2-6564-4a64-9026-d7d15bece0fc", "slug": "it-is-human", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/soren-kierkegaard/fear-and-trembling/it-is-human", "text": "It is human to lament, human to weep with them that weep, but it is greater to believe, more blessed to contemplate the believer.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "faith", "slug": "faith", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/faith" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fear_and_Trembling#A_Panegyric_Upon_Abraham", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T07:01:58" }, { "id": "70b1b8a2-328b-4f02-84d5-5c6e97a88cf1", "slug": "fools-and-young", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/soren-kierkegaard/fear-and-trembling/fools-and-young", "text": "Fools and young men prate about everything being possible for a man. That, however, is a great error. Spiritually speaking, everything is possible, but in the world of the finite there is much which is not possible.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 54, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "youth", "slug": "youth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fear_and_Trembling#Problemata:Preliminary_Expectoration", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T07:01:58" }, { "id": "6445af2c-e12c-421a-b860-0bfd5be914c1", "slug": "i-believe-nevertheless", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/soren-kierkegaard/fear-and-trembling/i-believe-nevertheless", "text": "\"I believe nevertheless that I shall get her, in virtue, that is, of the absurd, in virtue of the fact that with God all things are possible.\"", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "faith", "slug": "faith", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/faith" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fear_and_Trembling#Problemata:Preliminary_Expectoration", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T07:01:58" }, { "id": "569db8f3-2c23-46fc-8ca9-d254792bdb56", "slug": "passion-is-necessary", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/soren-kierkegaard/fear-and-trembling/passion-is-necessary", "text": "...passion is necessary. Every movement of infinity comes about by passion, and no reflection can bring a movement about.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "passion", "slug": "passion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/passion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fear_and_Trembling#Problemata:Preliminary_Expectoration", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T07:01:58" }, { "id": "3fc5fa6a-bde9-43f6-888a-68121f0b0ee0", "slug": "only-the-lower", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/soren-kierkegaard/fear-and-trembling/only-the-lower", "text": "Only the lower natures forget themselves and become something new. Thus the butterfly has entirely forgotten that it was a caterpillar, perhaps it may in turn so entirely forget it was a butterfly that it becomes a fish. The deeper natures never forget themselves and never become anything else than what they were.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 54, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "character", "slug": "character", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/character" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fear_and_Trembling#Problemata:Preliminary_Expectoration", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T07:01:58" }, { "id": "37fdca71-ccb4-4808-9793-b3e8be371385", "slug": "faith-is-a-marvel", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/soren-kierkegaard/fear-and-trembling/faith-is-a-marvel", "text": "Faith is a marvel, and yet no human being is excluded from it; for that which unites all human life is passion, and faith is a passion.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 67, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "faith", "slug": "faith", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/faith" }, { "name": "passion", "slug": "passion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/passion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fear_and_Trembling#Problema_I", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T07:01:58" }, { "id": "2a61b603-6a6d-49fd-8823-202f0b58a033", "slug": "faith-therefore-is-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/soren-kierkegaard/fear-and-trembling/faith-therefore-is-not", "text": "Faith therefore is not an aesthetic emotion but something far higher, precisely because it has resignation as its presupposition; it is not an immediate instinct of the heart, but is the paradox of life and existence.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "faith", "slug": "faith", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/faith" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fear_and_Trembling#Problemata:Preliminary_Expectoration", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T07:01:58" }, { "id": "27ed19ea-3966-4a0b-996a-b76f57f00b7d", "slug": "when-the-child", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/soren-kierkegaard/fear-and-trembling/when-the-child", "text": "When the child must be weaned, the mother blackens her breast, it would indeed be a shame that the breast should look delicious when the child must not have it. So the child believes that the breast has changed, but the mother is the same, her glance is as loving and tender as ever. Happy the person who had no need of more dreadful expedients for weaning the child !", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "love", "slug": "love", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love" }, { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fear_and_Trembling#Prelude", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T07:01:58" }, { "id": "14704031-9f74-4efd-aeb7-9eda56b79809", "slug": "no-not-one", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/soren-kierkegaard/fear-and-trembling/no-not-one", "text": "No, not one shall be forgotten who was great in the world. But each was great in his own way, and each in proportion to the greatness of that which he loved. For he who loved himself became great by himself, and he who loved other men became great by his selfless devotion, but he who loved God became greater than all. Everyone shall be remembered, but each became great in proportion to his expectation. One became great by expecting the possible, another by expecting the eternal, but he who expected the impossible became greater than all. Everyone shall be remembered, but each was great in proportion to the greatness of that with which he strove. For he who strove with the world became great by overcoming the world, and he who strove with himself became great by overcoming himself, but he who strove with God became greater than all. So there was strife in the world, man against man, one against a thousand, but he who strove with God was greater than all. So there was strife upon earth : there was one who overcame all by his power, and there was one who overcame God by his impotence. There was one who relied upon himself and gained all, there was one who secure in his strength sacrificed all, but he who believed God was greater than all. There was one who was great by reason of his power, and one who was great by reason of his wisdom, and one who was great by reason of his hope, and one who was great by reason of his love ; but Abraham was greater than all, great by reason of his power whose strength is impotence, great by reason of his wisdom whose secret is foolishness, great by reason of his hope whose form is madness, great by reason of the love which is hatred of oneself.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 31, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "love", "slug": "love", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fear_and_Trembling#A_Panegyric_Upon_Abraham", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T07:01:58" } ] }