---
title: "8 Backwards Quotes By Soren Kierkegaard"
description: "8 Backwards quotes by Soren Kierkegaard. Plus more from Soren Kierkegaard and more Backwards sayings from other authors."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b65/soren-kierkegaard-578_backwards_it-is-perfectly-true-as-philosophers-say_358737.jpg"
---

> [“It is perfectly true, as philosophers say, that life must be understood backwards. But they forget the other proposition, that it must…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/soren-kierkegaard/it-is-perfectly-true-as-philosophers-say-that-life-must-be-understood/)

[Soren Kierkegaard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/soren-kierkegaard/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b65/soren-kierkegaard-578_backwards_it-is-perfectly-true-as-philosophers-say_358737.jpg)

> [Backwards understood be only can but, forwards lived be must life.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/soren-kierkegaard/backwards-understood-be-only-can-but-forwards-lived-be-must-life/)

[Soren Kierkegaard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/soren-kierkegaard/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8d9/soren-kierkegaard-578_backwards_backwards-understood-be-only-can-but-for_919646.jpg)

> [“Life can only be understood going backward, but must be lived going forward.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/soren-kierkegaard/life-can-only-be-understood-going-backward-but-must-be-lived-going/)

[SOREN KIERKEGAARD](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/soren-kierkegaard/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/750/soren-kierkegaard-578_life_life-can-only-be-understood-going-backwa_926764.jpg)

> [Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forward.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/soren-kierkegaard/life-can-only-be-understood-backwards-but-it-must-be-lived-forward/)

[Soren Kierkegaard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/soren-kierkegaard/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8df/soren-kierkegaard-578_famous_life-can-only-be-understood-backwards-bu_1059769.jpg)

> [Life must be understood backwards; but... it must be lived forward.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/soren-kierkegaard/life-must-be-understood-backwards-but-it-must-be-lived-forward/)

[Soren Kierkegaard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/soren-kierkegaard/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f85/soren-kierkegaard-578_life_life-must-be-understood-backwards-but-it_2113496.jpg)

> [Since boredom advances and boredom is the root of all evil, no wonder, then, that the world goes backwards, that evil spreads.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/soren-kierkegaard/since-boredom-advances-and-boredom-is-the-root-of-all-evil-no-wonder/)

[Soren Kierkegaard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/soren-kierkegaard/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/302/soren-kierkegaard-578_backwards_since-boredom-advances-and-boredom-is-th_2245564.jpg)

> [Life is lived forwards, but understood backwards.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/soren-kierkegaard/life-is-lived-forwards-but-understood-backwards/)

[Soren Kierkegaard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/soren-kierkegaard/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/51f/soren-kierkegaard-578_backwards_life-is-lived-forwards-but-understood-ba_2771090.jpg)

> [Philosophy is perfectly right in saying that life must be understood backward. But then one forgets the other clause - that it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/soren-kierkegaard/philosophy-is-perfectly-right-in-saying-that-life-must-be-understood/)

[Soren Kierkegaard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/soren-kierkegaard/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/26c/soren-kierkegaard-578_backward_philosophy-is-perfectly-right-in-saying_2863504.jpg)

## Other authors on Backwards

## More by Soren Kierkegaard

> [Christianity does not oppose debauchery and uncontrollable passions and the like as much as it opposes... flat mediocrity, this nauseating atmosphere, this homey, civil…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/soren-kierkegaard/christianity-does-not-oppose-debauchery-and-uncontrollable-passions/)

[Soren Kierkegaard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/soren-kierkegaard/)

> [Christians remind me of schoolboys who want to look up the answers to their math problems in the back of the book rather than…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/soren-kierkegaard/christians-remind-me-of-schoolboys-who-want-to-look-up-the-answers-to/)

[Soren Kierkegaard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/soren-kierkegaard/)

> [People commonly travel the world over to see rivers and mountains, new stars, garish birds, freak fish, grotesque breeds of human; they fall into…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/soren-kierkegaard/people-commonly-travel-the-world-over-to-see-rivers-and-mountains-new/)

[Soren Kierkegaard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/soren-kierkegaard/)

> [“A strange thing happened to me in my dream. I was rapt into the Seventh Heaven. There sat all the gods assembled. As a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/soren-kierkegaard/a-strange-thing-happened-to-me-in-my-dream-i-was-rapt-into-the/)

[Soren Kierkegaard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/soren-kierkegaard/)

> [That which is truly human no generation learns from the one before it. No generation learns from another how to love. No generation has…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/soren-kierkegaard/that-which-is-truly-human-no-generation-learns-from-the-one-before-it/)

[Soren Kierkegaard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/soren-kierkegaard/)

> [A man may perform astonishing feats and comprehend a vast amount of knowledge, and yet have no understanding of himself. But suffering directs a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/soren-kierkegaard/a-man-may-perform-astonishing-feats-and-comprehend-a-vast-amount-of/)

[Soren Kierkegaard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/soren-kierkegaard/)

> [Be that self which one truly is.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/soren-kierkegaard/be-that-self-which-one-truly-is/)

[Soren Kierkegaard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/soren-kierkegaard/)

> [I go fishing for a thousand monsters in the depths of my own self](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/soren-kierkegaard/i-go-fishing-for-a-thousand-monsters-in-the-depths-of-my-own-self/)

[Soren Kierkegaard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/soren-kierkegaard/)

> [In addition to my other numerous acquaintances, I have one more intimate confidant… My depression is the most faithful mistress I have known —…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/soren-kierkegaard/in-addition-to-my-other-numerous-acquaintances-i-have-one-more/)

[Soren Kierkegaard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/soren-kierkegaard/)

> [The greatest danger to Christianity is, I contend, not heresies, not heterodoxies, not atheists, not profane secularism - no, but the kind of orthodoxy…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/soren-kierkegaard/the-greatest-danger-to-christianity-is-i-contend-not-heresies-not/)

[Soren Kierkegaard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/soren-kierkegaard/)

> [Future is everything that past has forgotten.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/soren-kierkegaard/future-is-everything-that-past-has-forgotten/)

[Soren Kierkegaard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/soren-kierkegaard/)

> [Without risk, faith is an impossibility.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/soren-kierkegaard/without-risk-faith-is-an-impossibility/)

[Soren Kierkegaard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/soren-kierkegaard/)

> [I have only one confidant, and that is the silence of night.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/soren-kierkegaard/i-have-only-one-confidant-and-that-is-the-silence-of-night/)

[Soren Kierkegaard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/soren-kierkegaard/)

> [A road well begun is the battle half won. The important thing is to make a beginning and get under way.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/soren-kierkegaard/a-road-well-begun-is-the-battle-half-won-the-important-thing-is-to/)

[Soren Kierkegaard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/soren-kierkegaard/)

> [I have, I believe, the courage to doubt everything; I have, I believe, the courage to fight against everything; but I do not have…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/soren-kierkegaard/i-have-i-believe-the-courage-to-doubt-everything-i-have-i-believe-the/)

[Soren Kierkegaard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/soren-kierkegaard/)

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