Soren Kierkegaard — "The greatest good is not to be born, the second is to die soon."
The greatest good is not to be born, the second is to die soon.
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More from Soren Kierkegaard
"I am a living demonstration of the fact that a man can remain a virgin until he is 30, and yet be a man."
"Marriage is and remains the most important discovery of the human race."
"Marry, and you will regret it; don't marry, you will also regret it; marry or don't marry, you will regret it either way."
"The only thing I am afraid of is that I shall not remain a humorist."
"The greatest danger in life is that you may take too many precautions."
About Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)
Danish philosopher and theologian considered the founder of existentialism; Either/Or (1843) and Fear and Trembling (1843) explored the leap of faith. Closely associated with Friedrich Nietzsche (his existentialist successor working in the opposite theological direction) and Fyodor Dostoevsky (literary parallel exploring faith-and-despair). For an intellectual contrast, see G.W.F. Hegel, German Idealist of the totalizing system — Kierkegaard called Hegel's system a 'palatial residence' that nobody could actually live in — his entire authorship is structured against Hegelian abstraction in favor of the existing individual's inwardness.
The standard scholarly entry points to Soren Kierkegaard's work: Joakim Garff (University of Copenhagen, Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre) — Søren Kierkegaard: A Biography (2000); Walter Lowrie (Princeton, his major postwar English translator) — A Short Life of Kierkegaard (1942); C. Stephen Evans (Baylor University, philosophy of religion) — Kierkegaard: An Introduction (2009). These are the works graduate seminars cite when teaching Soren Kierkegaard.