“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”
Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism
Variant: Life can only be understood going backward, but must be lived going forward.
“It is perfectly true, as the philosophers say, that life must be understood backwards. But they forget the other proposition, that it must be lived forwards.”
Journals IV A 164 (1843)
See Phenomenology: Critical Concepts in Philosophy, by Dermot Moran (2002)
Variants:
We live forward, but we understand backward.
Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.
1840s, The Journals of Søren Kierkegaard, 1840s
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Do you have more details about the quote "It is perfectly true, as the philosophers say, that life must be understood backwards. But they forget the other propos…" by Sören Kierkegaard?
Sören Kierkegaard309
Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism 1813–1855Related quotes
“Life can only be understood looking backward. It must be lived forward.”
Eric Roth (1945) American screenwriter
Source: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Screenplay
“Though life has to be lived forward, it can only be understood backwards”
Adeline Yen Mah (1937) Author and physician
Source: Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter
“Life can only be understood backward; the trouble is, it has to be lived forward.”
Zia Haider Rahman British novelist
In The Light of what We Know (2014)
“Life is like that. You live it forward but understand it backward.”
Abraham Verghese book Cutting for Stone
Variant: You live it forward, but understand it backward.
Source: Cutting for Stone
“Life is a succesion of lessons which must be lived to be understood.”
Helen Keller (1880–1968) American author and political activist
“Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
