“Then I am able to pursue this one main idea and see how all the details serve to illuminate it.”

Journals of Søren Kierkegaard 1A 8, 1834
1830s, The Journals of Søren Kierkegaard, 1830s
Context: The reason I cannot really say that I positively enjoy nature is that I do not quite realize what it is that I enjoy. A work of art, on the other hand, I can grasp. I can — if I may put it this way — find that Archimedian point, and as soon as I have found it, everything is readily clear for me. Then I am able to pursue this one main idea and see how all the details serve to illuminate it.

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Sören Kierkegaard 309
Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism 1813–1855

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