Either/Or. Part Two.
EITHER/OR. PART ONE: THE AESTHETIC
A hand-drawn birthday flower from Kierkegaard to his niece Henriette Lund on her thirteenth birthday.
Apathy
“I don't feel like doing anything. I don't feel like riding, it’s too much agitation; I don't feel like walking, it’s too tiring; I don't feel like lying down because I’d either have to remain there, and I don't feel like doing that, or I’d have to get up again, and I don't feel like doing that, either. Summa Summarum: I don't feel like doing anything.” - (Enten - Eller. Første Deel. Source: SKS.dk)
The End of the World as a Joke
“In a theater, it happened that a fire started offstage. The clown came out to tell the audience. They thought it was a joke and applauded. He told them again, and they found it even more hilarious. This is the way, I suppose, that the world will be destroyed—amid the universal hilarity of wits and wags who think it’s all a joke.” (Enten - Eller. Første Deel. Source: SKS.dk)
A Single Color
“My life achievement amounts to nothing at all, a mood, a single color. My achievement resembles the painting by that artist who was supposed to paint the Israelites' crossing of the Red Sea and thus painted the entire wall red, explaining that the Israelites had already walked across and the Egyptians had drowned.” (Enten - Eller. Første Deel. Source: SKS.dk)
The Philosophers Sell Out
“What philosophers say about reality is often just as disappointing as reading a sign in a secondhand shop that says: “Pressing Done Here.” If someone were to bring his clothes to be pressed, he’d be duped, for it’s only the sign that’s for sale.” (Enten - Eller. Første Deel. Source: SKS.dk)
A Sunday Mood and Sorrowful Longing
“The sun is shining brilliantly and beautifully into my room; the window in the next room is open. Out on the street, everything is quiet. It is Sunday afternoon. I distinctly hear a lark warbling outside a window in one of the neighboring courtyards, outside the window where the beautiful girl lives. Far away in a distant street, I hear a man crying "Shrimp for sale." The air is so warm, and yet the whole city is as if deserted. Then I call to mind my youth and my first love when I was filled with longing; now I long only for my first longing. What is youth? A dream. What is love? The content of the dream.” (Enten - Eller. Første Deel. Source: SKS.dk)
The Totality of Regret
“Marry, and you will regret it. Do not marry, and you will also regret it. Marry or do not marry, you will regret it either way. Whether you marry or you do not marry, you will regret it either way.” (Enten - Eller. Første Deel. Source: SKS.dk)
Don Juan’s Mount Venus
“In the Middle Ages, much was said about a mountain that isn’t found on any map; it’s called Mount Venus. There sensuousness has its home; there it has its wild pleasures, for it is a kingdom, a state. In this kingdom, language has no home, nor the collectedness of thought, nor the laborious achievements of reflection; there is heard only the elemental voice of passion, the play of desires, the wild noise of intoxication. There everything is only one giddy round of pleasure. The firstborn of this kingdom is Don Juan.” (Enten - Eller. Første Deel. Source: SKS.dk)
