“What the age needs is not a genius — it has had geniuses enough, but a martyr, who in order to teach men to obey would himself be obedient unto death. What the age needs is awakening.”

— Sören Kierkegaard

(20 November 1847)
1840s, The Journals of Søren Kierkegaard, 1840s
Context: What the age needs is not a genius — it has had geniuses enough, but a martyr, who in order to teach men to obey would himself be obedient unto death. What the age needs is awakening. And therefore someday, not only my writings but my whole life, all the intriguing mystery of the machine will be studied and studied. I never forget how God helps me and it is therefore my last wish that everything may be to his honour.

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Sören Kierkegaard 309

Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism 1813–1855

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