“Marry, and you will regret it. Do not marry, and you will also regret it. Marry or do not marry, you will regret it either way.”
Søren Kierkegaard
The quote comes from the Diapsalmata, a collection of aphorisms that opens Either/Or (1843). Kierkegaard published the book under the pseudonym Victor Eremita, and within it the Diapsalmata are attributed to a further fictional figure called “A,” a young aesthete. Kierkegaard deliberately used such pseudonyms to signal that these viewpoints were not necessarily his own.
Either/Or (Primary source)
Either/Or, published under the pseudonym Victor Eremita (“victorious hermit”), presents a dialectical exploration of two contrasting life views: the aesthetic and the ethical.
“Most people rush after pleasure so fast that they rush right past it.”
— Søren Kierkegaard Primary source“Pleasure disappoints; possibility does not.”
— Søren Kierkegaard Primary source“Desire in our age is simultaneously sinful and boring, because it desires what belongs to the neighbor.”
— Søren Kierkegaard Primary source“Recollection is more richly satisfying than all actuality.”
— Søren Kierkegaard Primary sourceMore quotes by Søren Kierkegaard →