Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.
Søren Kierkegaard Journals and Papers, 1843 (1843)
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When and why it was written
- When
- A journal entry from 1843, the year of Either/Or and Fear and Trembling.
- Why
- Kierkegaard was working on why a life cannot be planned the way it can be narrated afterwards.
What it means
Two operations pointing opposite ways. Understanding assembles a sequence into a story, and stories require endings.
Living happens at the front edge, where the sequence is incomplete. Kierkegaard's point is that the clarity available in retrospect is structurally unavailable in advance, so waiting for it is waiting for nothing.
Read the source
Journals and Papers, 1843
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