Source: The Courage to Be (1952), p. 120
“Fate, then, is the nothing of anxiety.”
Source: 1840s, The Concept of Anxiety (1844), p. 96-97
Context: Anxiety and nothing always correspond to each other. As soon as the actuality of freedom and of spirit is posited, anxiety is canceled. But what then does the nothing of anxiety signify more particularly in paganism. This is fate. Fate is a relation to spirit as external. It is the relation between spirit and something else that is not spirit and to which fate nevertheless stands in a spiritual relation. Fate may also signify exactly the opposite, because it is the unity of necessity and accidental. … A necessity that is not conscious of itself is eo ipso the accidental in relation to the next moment. Fate, then, is the nothing of anxiety.
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Sören Kierkegaard 309
Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism 1813–1855Related quotes
“Anxiety and nothing always correspond to each other.”
Sören Kierkegaard
(1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism
Source: 1840s, The Concept of Anxiety (1844), p. 96-97
Context: Anxiety and nothing always correspond to each other. As soon as the actuality of freedom and of spirit is posited, anxiety is canceled. But what then does the nothing of anxiety signify more particularly in paganism. This is fate. Fate is a relation to spirit as external. It is the relation between spirit and something else that is not spirit and to which fate nevertheless stands in a spiritual relation. Fate may also signify exactly the opposite, because it is the unity of necessity and accidental. … A necessity that is not conscious of itself is eo ipso the accidental in relation to the next moment. Fate, then, is the nothing of anxiety.
Source: The New Industrial State (1967), Chapter VIII, Section 1, p. 91 (1985)
“Fate is nothing but the deeds committed in a prior state of existence.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
(1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
Benjamin Disraeli
(1804–1881) British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister
Ronald Reagan
(1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)
The third and fourth sentences are a paraphrase of a sentence by G. K. Chesterton: "I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act." Generally Speaking, "On Holland' (1928).
1980s, First term of office (1981–1985), First Inaugural address (1981)
Context: It is time for us to realize that we're too great a nation to limit ourselves to small dreams. We're not, as some would have us believe, doomed to an inevitable decline. I do not believe in a fate that will fall on us no matter what we do. I do believe in a fate that will fall on us if we do nothing. So, with all the creative energy at our command, let us begin an era of national renewal. Let us renew our determination, our courage, and our strength. And let us renew our faith and our hope. We have every right to dream heroic dreams. Those who say that we're in a time when there are no heroes, they just don't know where to look.
Randall Jarrell
(1914–1965) poet, critic, novelist, essayist
“Freud to Paul: The Stages of Auden’s Ideology”, p. 180
The Third Book of Criticism (1969)
“A god without dominion, providence, and final causes, is nothing else but Fate and Nature.”
Alexander Pope
(1688–1744) eighteenth century English poet
Isaac Newton: Principia Mathematica (1687); Rules of Reasoning in Philosophy, Rule IV.
Misattributed
