Flying with Ella

More Soren Quotes

I still haven't read any of Kierkegaard's books, but I always enjoy coming across his words. Some Soren Kierkegaard quotes:

God creates out of nothing. Wonderful you say. Yes, to be sure, but he does what is still more wonderful: he makes saints out of sinners.

If I am capable of grasping God objectively, I do not believe, but precisely because I cannot do this I must believe.

It is so hard to believe because it is so hard to obey.

Once you label me you negate me.

One can advise comfortably from a safe port.

Prayer does not change God, but it changes him who prays.

The highest and most beautiful things in life are not to be heard about, nor read about, nor seen but, if one will, are to be lived.

The truth is a snare: you cannot have it, without being caught. You cannot have the truth in such a way that you catch it, but only in such a way that it catches you.

The tyrant dies and his rule is over, the martyr dies and his rule begins.

Communication w/o Static

. . . communication is itself an emotional phenomenon, rather than a matter of the intellect that is influenced by feelings or the emotions, and . . . [communication] depends on three interrelational rather than “mental” variables: direction, distance, and anxiety. Whether you are a parent, a minister, a healer, or a CEO, your communicant’s capacity to hear you depends primarily on the emotional variables of direction, distance, and anxiety. Others can only hear you when they are moving toward you, no matter how eloquently you phrase the message. In other words, as long as you are in the pursuing, rescuing, or coercive position, your message, no matter how eloquently broadcast, will never catch up. And as for anxiety, it is the static in any communication system and can distort or scramble any message. It cannot be eliminated simply by turning up the volume, since that invariably also turns up the static. Messages in families, . . . or in organizational directives come through less because of the quality of their content than because of the emotional envelope in which they are delivered.

The above quote is, again, from the book Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix by Edwin H. Friedman. As I've been reading his book, I keep recalling Scripture references to anxiety, so then I did a quick search on Heartlight.org and pasted a few below:

Do not worry . . . (Jesus, Matthew 6)

I want you to be free from anxieties. (Paul, 1 Corinthians 7)

Do not worry about anything . . . but . . . prayer . . . and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Paul, Philippians 4)

Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you. (Peter, 1 Peter 5:7)

Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman, for I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation all this time. (Hannah, 1 Samuel 1:16)

Anxiety weighs down the human heart, but a good word cheers it up. (The Wise, Proverbs 12:25)

Banish anxiety from your mind, and put away pain from your body; for youth and the dawn of life are vanity. (The Questor, Ecclesiastes 11:10)

When his parents saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, "Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety." (Jesus' parents, Luke 2:48)