May 5 Quotations

Quotes of the day from previous years:

2004

Everything in the universe relates to the number 5, one way or another, given enough ingenuity on the part of the interpreter. ~ Principia Discordia, "The Law of Fives"

selected by Kalki

2005

Democracy is the destiny of humanity; freedom its indestructible arm. ~ Benito Juárez (Cinco de Mayo, and 05-05-05)

selected by Kalki

2006

Once you label me you negate me. ~ Søren Kierkegaard (born 5 May 1813)

selected by Kalki

2007

I see it all perfectly; there are two possible situations — one can either do this or that. My honest opinion and my friendly advice is this: do it or do not do it — you will regret both. ~ Søren Kierkegaard, Either/Or

proposed by Aphaia

2008

If I have ventured wrongly, very well, life then helps me with its penalty. But if I haven't ventured at all, who helps me then? ~ Søren Kierkegaard (born 5 May 1813)

proposed by InvisibleSun

2009

Is it an excellence in your love that it can love only the extraordinary, the rare? If it were love’s merit to love the extraordinary, then God would be — if I dare say so — perplexed, for to Him the extraordinary does not exist at all. The merit of being able to love only the extraordinary is therefore more like an accusation, not against the extraordinary nor against love, but against the love which can love only the extraordinary. Perfection in the object is not perfection in the love. Erotic love is determined by the object; friendship is determined by the object; only love of one’s neighbor is determined by love. Therefore genuine love is recognizable by this, that its object is without any of the more definite qualifications of difference, which means that this love is recognizable only by love. ~ Søren Kierkegaard

proposed by Kalki

2010
Quotes by people born on this day, already used as QOTD:

Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards. ~ Søren Kierkegaard
- used 7 July 2004, selected by Kalki

Life is a mystery to be lived, not a problem to be solved. ~ Søren Kierkegaard
- used 17 August 2004, selected by Kalki

When one has once fully entered the realm of love, the world — no matter how imperfect — becomes rich and beautiful, it consists solely of opportunities for love. ~ Søren Kierkegaard, The Works of Love
- used 14 February 2007, proposed by Kalki

Suggestions

Out of love, God becomes man. He says: "See, here is what it is to be a human being. -- Søren Kierkegaard, The Sickness unto Death

3 Aphaia 09:12, 4 May 2007 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 11:27, 4 May 2007 (UTC)
3 Kalki 15:26, 4 May 2007 (UTC)
1 Zarbon 04:56, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

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Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced. -- Søren Kierkegaard

3 Aphaia 09:12, 4 May 2007 (UTC)
Comment: I'm in the middle of finding sources for the unsourced quotes on the Kierkegaard page. This unsourced quote is one of a number of variants, including "Life is not a problem to be solved, but a mystery to be lived," "Life is not mystery to be solved, but a reality to be experienced", and all the other permutations of the same. Although the quote is most frequently attributed to Kierkegaard, I haven't yet found a source for it and would hesitate to recommend it unless it was sourced. Other people are also attributed with the quote: one of them, J.J. van der Leeuw, is the only person so far to whom I can trace it, as seen here in a book dated 1928. - InvisibleSun 11:27, 4 May 2007 (UTC)
I HOPE it originated with Kierkegaard, because it is so widely attributed I used a variant of it already: "Life is a mystery to be lived, not a problem to be solved" on 17 August 2004. ~ Kalki 15:26, 4 May 2007 (UTC)
2 Zarbon 04:56, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

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Do not interrupt the flight of your soul; do not distress what is best in you; do not enfeeble your spirit with half wishes and half thoughts. Ask yourself and keep on asking until you find the answer, for one may have known something many times, acknowledged it; one may have willed something many times, attempted it — and yet, only the deep inner motion, only the heart's indescribable emotion, only that will convince you that what you have acknowledged belongs to you, that no power can take it from you — for only the truth that builds up is truth for you. -- Søren Kierkegaard, Either/Or

2 Aphaia 09:12, 4 May 2007 (UTC) (afraid a bit long...)
3 InvisibleSun 11:27, 4 May 2007 (UTC)
3 Kalki 15:26, 4 May 2007 (UTC) with a very strong lean toward 4.
1 Zarbon 04:56, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

OR:

Do not interrupt the flight of your soul; do not distress what is best in you; do not enfeeble your spirit with half wishes and half thoughts. Ask yourself and keep on asking until you find the answer, for one may have known something many times, acknowledged it. -- Søren Kierkegaard, Either/Or

3 Aphaia 09:12, 4 May 2007 (UTC) (shortened version of the above)
3 InvisibleSun 11:27, 4 May 2007 (UTC)
3 Kalki 15:26, 4 May 2007 (UTC) But with a strong preference for the longer version.
1 Zarbon 04:56, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

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The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it. --Karl Marx, "Theses on Feuerbach". (also born on May 5)

3 Aphaia 09:12, 4 May 2007 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 11:27, 4 May 2007 (UTC)
2 Kalki 23:32, 4 May 2009 (UTC) * 3 Kalki 15:26, 4 May 2007 (UTC) with a lean toward 3
2 Zarbon 04:56, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

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Sin is in itself separation from the good, but despair over sin is separation a second time. ~ Søren Kierkegaard

3 InvisibleSun 11:27, 4 May 2007 (UTC)
2 Kalki 23:32, 4 May 2009 (UTC) * 3 Kalki 15:26, 4 May 2007 (UTC)
3 Aphaia 16:06, 4 May 2007 (UTC)
3 Zarbon 04:56, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

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History is not like some individual person, which uses men to achieve its ends. History is nothing but the actions of men in pursuit of their ends. ~ Karl Marx (born May 5, 1818)

3 InvisibleSun 11:27, 4 May 2007 (UTC)
2 Kalki 23:32, 4 May 2009 (UTC) * 3 Kalki 15:26, 4 May 2007 (UTC)
3 Aphaia 16:06, 4 May 2007 (UTC)
2 Zarbon 04:56, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

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Think of the 40 years of confrontation. What is it we gained?...The old style has exposed itself: it is fruitless. ~ Sergei Akhromeyev (born May 5)

3 Zarbon 06:37, 21 April 2008 (UTC)
- Source: The New York Times, "Mr. Darman's Sermon" July 29, 1989
1 This is an unsourced quote. It is also not clear what it refers to: the Cold War, presumably, but a reader shouldn't have to guess at this meaning out of context. - InvisibleSun 08:10, 4 May 2008 (UTC)
1 Kalki 12:50, 3 May 2009 (UTC)

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Men make their own history, but they do not make it just as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly encountered, given and transmitted from the past. ~ Karl Marx (born May 5)

3 because although to some degree, people do decide what steps they take, they can't decide and create the circumstances themselves...and the environmental horizons truly decipher the possibilities. Zarbon 04:02, 29 April 2008 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 08:10, 4 May 2008 (UTC)
3 Kalki 12:50, 3 May 2009 (UTC)

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It is the duty of the human understanding to understand that there are things which it cannot understand, and what those things are. Human understanding has vulgarly occupied itself with nothing but understanding, but if it would only take the trouble to understand itself at the same time it would simply have to posit the paradox. ~ Søren Kierkegaard

3 Kalki 13:15, 4 May 2008 (UTC) with a very strong lean toward 4.
1 because the word "understand" is abused here. Zarbon 16:55, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

The word "abused" is abused here. Obviously, and deliberately Kierkegaard examines and expresses statements about the processes of understanding, so as to help disabuse people of their false notions of understanding of many things which they do not, and cannot understand, no matter how firmly they might believe they do . ~ Kalki 22:53, 3 May 2009 (UTC)

3 InvisibleSun 23:05, 4 May 2009 (UTC)

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The presence of irony does not necessarily mean that the earnestness is excluded. Only assistant professors assume that. ~ Søren Kierkegaard

3 Kalki 13:15, 4 May 2008 (UTC)
1 Zarbon 16:55, 4 May 2008 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 23:05, 4 May 2009 (UTC)

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You cannot get the truth by capturing it, only by its capturing you. ~ Søren Kierkegaard

3 Kalki 13:15, 4 May 2008 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
2 Zarbon 16:55, 4 May 2008 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 23:05, 4 May 2009 (UTC)

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Poor nations which loves more freedom than motherland. ~ Henryk Sienkiewicz

3 Zarbon 06:01, 12 October 2008 (UTC)
0 Kalki 12:50, 3 May 2009 (UTC) this is seems to be a very poor translation of an unsourced statement.

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A man who leaves memoirs, whether well or badly written, provided they be sincere, renders a service to future psychologists and writers, giving them not only a faithful picture, but likewise human documents that may be relied upon. ~ Henryk Sienkiewicz

3 Kalki 22:44, 3 May 2009 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 23:05, 4 May 2009 (UTC)

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There is within us a moral instinct which forbids us to rejoice at the death of even an enemy. ~ Henryk Sienkiewicz

3 Kalki 22:44, 3 May 2009 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 23:05, 4 May 2009 (UTC)

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It is subjectivity that Christianity is concerned with, and it is only in subjectivity that its truth exists, if it exists at all; objectively, Christianity has no existence. ~ Søren Kierkegaard in Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments

3 Kalki 21:34, 4 May 2009 (UTC) ~~4 Kalki 22:44, 3 May 2009 (UTC)~~ with a strong lean toward 4; this is both perplexing and startling to the casual thinker, and profound in its implications as to the actual reality of Love, Truth, the Beauty that arises through both, and all the subjective emotions, which do not "exist" at all merely "objectively" and cannot, any more than Life itself can, or Awareness itself can, or Reality itself can. I would prefer the statement far more strongly if the more general term "Religion" were used, but in quoting Kierkegaard, he generally used the more specific though still diversely understood term "Christianity."
3 InvisibleSun 23:05, 4 May 2009 (UTC)

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