Søren Kierkegaard — Quote from Either/Or
“Do it or do not do it — you will regret both.”
Either/Or (1843)
Concepts: authenticity, absurd, freedom
Resonant Quotes
- “Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is respon...” — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness Both quotes illuminate the existential burden of freedom where radical responsibility and the inevitability of regret...
- “What, if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into your lonelies...” — Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science Both present radical tests of authentic existence—Kierkegaard's inevitable regret and Nietzsche's eternal repetition ...
- “I will not serve that in which I no longer believe, whether it calls itself m...” — James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Joyce's decisive rejection of false authorities meets Kierkegaard's insight into the irreducible anxiety of choice it...
- “I had lived my life one way and I could just as well have lived it another. I...” — Albert Camus, The Stranger Both philosophers confront the fundamental arbitrariness of choice—Kierkegaard's recognition that regret haunts all d...
- “Beyond a certain point there is no return. This point has to be reached.” — Franz Kafka, The Trial Kafka's irreversible point perfectly embodies Kierkegaard's paradox: the necessity of choosing despite inevitable reg...
- “If God does not exist, everything is permitted.” — Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov Both quotes capture the existential burden of choice without divine guidance — Dostoevsky's moral void creating the s...
- “We do not know what we want and yet we are responsible for what we are — that...” — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness Both capture the anguishing structure of existential freedom—Kierkegaard's universal regret and Sartre's unknowing re...
- “A man without hope and conscious of being so has ceased to belong to the future.” — Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus Both illuminate how consciousness can become a prison—Camus shows how hopeless awareness severs one from future possi...