As soon as I speak, I express the universal, and if I do not do this, no one can understand me.
Kierkegaard (72)
The child is das Innere [the inner], the man is das Äußere [the outer] . . . The paradox of faith is this: that there is an inwardness that is incommensurable with the outer, an inwardness which, note well, is not identical with that first inwardness, but is a new inwardness.
Kierkegaard (83)
The paradox of faith, then, is this: that the single individual is higher than the universal, that the single individual determines his relation to the universal by his relation to the absolute, not his relation to the absolute by his relation to the universal.
Kierkegaard (84)
Let us, then, consider a bit more closely the distress and the anxiety in the paradox of faith. The tragic hero renounces himself in order to express the universal; the knight of faith renounces the universal in order to become the single individual . . . the knight of faith knows that it is glorious to belong to the universal . . . He knows that it is refreshing for a person to be understandable to himself in the universal in such a way that he understands it and, in turn, every individual who understands him understands the universal in him, and both find joy in the security of the universal. He knows that it is beautiful to be born as the single individual who has his home, his welcoming place of rest, in the universal, which if he wishes to remain there, immediately receives him with open arms. But he also knows that, higher than this, a narrow, steep path wends its lonely way; he knows that it is frightful to be born alone, outside the universal, to wander without encountering one single wanderer. He knows very well where he is and how he is situated in relation to people. Humanly speaking, he is mad and cannot make himself understood by anyone. And yet, madness is the mildest expression for it. If he is not viewed in this way, he is a hypocrite, and the further up the path he ascends, the more abominable a hypocrite he becomes.
Kierkegaard (91-92)
The tragic hero . . . has a place of refuge in the universal. The knight of faith has only and solely himself, and therein lies what is frightful.
Kierkegaard (95)
The true knight of faith is always someone absolutely isolated; the false knight is a member of a sect, which is an attempt to escape the narrow path of the paradox and become a tragic hero at a bargain price. The tragic hero expresses the universal and sacrifices himself for it . . . The knight of faith, by contrast, is the paradox; he is the single individual, absolutely and solely the single individual, devoid of all connections and complications. This is the terrifying situation that the sectarian weakling cannot endure . . . The sectarians drown one another out with noise and clamor, holding anxiety at bay with their shouting, and a whooping carnival crowd of this sort thinks it can storm heaven and that it is treading the same path as the knight of faith who, in the loneliness of the universe, never hears any human voice, but walks alone with his fearsome responsibility.
The knight of faith is referred solely to himself, he feels the pain of being unable to make himself understood by others, but he feels no vain desire to guide others.
Kierkegaard (96-97)
. . . by immersing oneself in oneself, one discovers first and foremost a disposition toward evil.
Kierkegaard (121)
Merely the thought of taking time upon one’s conscience like this, of giving one’s conscience, in its insomniac tirelessness, the time to search through every secret thought, so that a person – if he does not at every instant make the movement by virtue of what is noblest and holiest in a person – can through dread and anxiety discover and, if by no other means, then through anxiety, lure forth the dark undercurrent that in fact conceals itself in every human life – whereas when one lives in society with others, one so easily forgets, so easily slips away from this, is supported in so many ways, is granted the opportunity to begin anew: I have thought that merely by itself, this thought, understood with proper respect, could serve to chasten many an individual in our times, times which believe they have already arrived at what is highest.
Kierkegaard (121-122)
(All from Fear and Trembling, translated by Bruce Kirmmse)
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