Stages on Life’s Way

by Søren Kierkegaard

  281. A golden statue erected after he won the chariot race at the Olympics. See Diogenes Laertius, I, 96; Vitis, I, p. 46; Riisbrigh, I, p. 43; Loeb, I, p. 99.

  282. See Diogenes Laertius, I, 99; Vitis, I, p. 47; Riisbrigh, I, p. 45; Loeb, I, p. 103: “Practice makes perfect.”

  283. See Diogenes Laertius, I, 94-96; Vitis, I, pp. 45-46; Riisbrigh, I, pp. 42-43; Loeb, I, pp. 97-99:

  By her [Lysida] he had two sons, Cypselus and Lycophron, the younger a man of intelligence, the elder weak in mind. However, after some time, in a fit of anger, he killed his wife by throwing a footstool at her, or by a kick, when she was pregnant, having been egged on by the slanderous tales of concubines, whom he afterwards burnt alive.

  When the son whose name was Lycophron grieved for his mother, he banished him to Corcyra. And when well advanced in years he sent for his son to be his successor in the tyranny; but the Corcyraeans put him to death before he could set sail. Enraged at this, he dispatched the sons of the Corcyraeans to Alyattes that he might make eunuchs of them; but, when the ship touched at Samos, they took sanctuary in the temple of Hera, and were saved by the Samians. . . .

  Aristippus in the first book of his work On the Luxury of the Ancients accuses him of incest with his own mother Crateia, and adds that, when the fact came to light, he vented his annoyance in indiscriminate severity.

  284. Cf. Diogenes Laertius, I, 98; Vitis, I, p. 47; Riisbrigh, I, p. 44; Loeb, I, p. 101: “Betray no secret.”

  285. Cf. Johannes Stobaeus, Florilegium, III, 79; Ioannis Stobaei sententiae (Lugduni: 1555; ASKB 244 [Basel: 1549]), p. 117 (ed. tr.): “Infortunium tuum celato, ne gaudio inimicos afficias [Conceal your misfortunes, lest you please your enemies].”

  286. See Diogenes Laertius, I, 98; Vitis, I, p. 47; Riisbrigh, I, p. 44; Loeb, I, pp. 100-01.

  287. Cf. Diogenes Laertius, I, 97; Vitis, I, p. 47; Riisbrigh, I, p. 44; Loeb, I, p. 101: “He said that those tyrants who intend to be safe should make loyalty their bodyguard, not arms.”

  288. See note 287 above.

  Grieve not because thou hast not gained thine end,

  But take with gladness all the gods may send;

  Be warned by Periander’s fate, who died

  Of grief that one desire should be denied.

  289. See Supplement, p. 502 (Pap. IV A 26).

  290. See Diogenes Laertius, I, 100; Vitis, I, p. 48; Riisbrigh, I, p. 45; Loeb, I, p. 105:

  Thrasybulus to Periander

  “I made no answer to your herald; but I took him into a cornfield, and with a staff smote and cut off the over-grown ears of corn, while he accompanied me. And if you ask him what he heard and what he saw, he will give his message. And this is what you must do if you want to strengthen your absolute rule: put to death those among the citizens who are pre-eminent, whether they are hostile to you or not. For to an absolute ruler even a friend is an object of suspicion.”

  291. See Fear and Trembling, p. 3, KW VI (SV III 56).

  292. See Diogenes Laertius, I, 94; Vitis, I, p. 45; Riisbrigh, I, p. 42; Loeb, I, pp. 96-97.

  293. See Herodotus, III, 50-53; Lange, I, pp. 249-52; Loeb, II, pp. 63-71.

  294. See Supplement, pp. 660-61 (Pap. X5 A 149:8; X1 A 667).

  295. With reference to the remainder of the sentence, see Supplement, p. 599 (Pap. V B 104:3).

  296. With reference to the following sentence, see Supplement, p. 599 (Pap. V B 104:4).

  297. With reference to the remainder of the paragraph and the two following paragraphs, see Supplement, p. 599 (Pap. V B 97:24).

  298. With reference to the following sentence, see Supplement, p. 600 (Pap. V B 97:18).

  299. See Supplement, p. 600 (Pap. V B 98:1).

  300. See Psalm 35:20.

  301. Cf. Petrarch, Rimes, I, 7; Sämmtliche italienische Gedichte, I-VI, tr. F. W. Brückbrau (Munich: 1827; ASKB 1932-33), I, p. 288; Petrarch’s Lyric Poems The Rime sparse and Other Lyrics, tr. and ed. Robert M. Durling (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1976), 237, p. 394:

  The sea has not so many creatures among its waves,

  nor up there beyond the circle of the moon

  were so many stars ever seen by any night,

  nor do so many birds dwell in the woods,

  nor did any field ever have so much grass, or any meadow,

  as I have cares in my heart every evening.

  302. With reference to the following paragraph, see Supplement, p. 600 (Pap. V B 97:42, 98:10).

  303. The royal gardens around Rosenborg Castle in the center of Copenhagen.

  304. With reference to the following sentence, see Supplement, pp. 600-01 (Pap. V B 114).

  305. In Greek mythology, the place of punishment as far below Hades as the earth is below heaven, sometimes regarded as one of the two parts (Elysium and Tartarus) of Hades. See Nitsch, I, pp. 563-67.

  306. Augustine, De doctrina Christiana, III, 18; Sancti Aurelii Augustini . . . opera et studio monachorum, I-XVIII (Bassani: 1797-1807; ASKB 117-34), III, col. 69; The Confessions. The City of God. On Christian Doctrine, tr. Marcus Dods and J. F. Shaw (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1952), p. 665.

  307. Cf. Romans 12:11.

  308. See Supplement, p. 601 (Pap. V B 115:2); Anxiety, p. 108, KW VIII (SV IV 376).

  309. See JP V 5937-38; VI 6680 (Pap. VII1 A 147-48; X3 A 450). See also Scribe, [Puf eller] Verden vil bedrages; Repertoire, no no. (n.d.).

  310. See Holberg, Erasmus Montanus, I, 4, Danske Skue-Plads, V, no pagination; Campbell and Schenck, p. 127.

  311. For continuation of the sentence and with reference to the following two sentences, see Supplement, pp. 601-02 (Pap. V B 115:3).

  312. See Mark 1:3.

  313. For continuation of the paragraph, see Supplement, p. 602 (Pap. V B 115:5).

  314. See Acts 13:2; Romans 1:1.

  315. With reference to the remainder of the paragraph, the next paragraph, and the following sentence, see Supplement, p. 602 (Pap. V B 115:6).

  316. See J. L. Heiberg, Kong Salomon og Jørgen Hattemager, 26, Skuespil, II, p. 386 (ed. tr.) (Chorus): “We depend upon his word and gown.”

  317. See “The Difference between a Genius and an Apostle,” Without Authority, KW XVIII (SV XI 93-109).

  318. Socrates.

  319. With reference to the remainder of the paragraph, see Supplement, pp. 602-03 (Pap. V B 115:7).

  320. See Ecclesiastes 1:9.

  321. With reference to the following sentence, see Supplement, p. 603 (Pap. V B 98:2).

  322. See Horace, Epistles, I, 1, 46; Opera, p. 541; Loeb, p. 255: “fleeing poverty through sea, through rocks, through flame.” See Either/Or, II, p. 202, KW IV (SV II 182).

  323. See, for example, JP I 703 (Pap. IV A 57).

  324. See, for example, Plato, Theaetetus, 155 d; Opera, II, p. 41; Dialogues, p. 860: “This sense of wonder is the mark of the philosopher. Philosophy indeed has no other origin . . ..” Aristotle, Metaphysics, 982 b; Bekker, I, p. 982; Works, II, p. 1554: “For it is owing to their wonder that men both now begin and at first began to philosophize . . ..” On Forundring and Beundring, see, for example, Fragments, p. 310, note 35, KW VII.

  325. With reference to the following sentence, see Supplement, p. 603 (Pap. V B 115:8).

  326. With reference to the remainder of the sentence, see Supplement, pp. 603-04 (Pap. V B 115:9).

  327. See J. L. Heiberg, Recensenten og Dyret, 16, Skuespil, III, p. 243 (ed. tr.) (Trop speaking): “She never sings except to a horse; she is accustomed to hearing the whip, and without it she can do nothing.”

  328. With reference to the following three paragraphs, see Supplement, p. 604 (Pap. V B 97:28).

  329. With reference to the remainder of the paragraph, see Supplement, p. 604 (Pap. V B 98:15).

  330. With reference to the remainder of the sentence, see Supplement, p. 605 (Pap. V B 116:1).

  331. With reference to the remainder of the sentence, see Supplement, p. 605 (Pap. V B 116:2).

  332. With reference to the remainder of th
e paragraph, see Supplement, p. 605 (Pap. V B 98:5, 116:3).

  333. See Genesis 3:18.

  334. With reference to the remainder of the paragraph, see Supplement, p. 606 (Pap. V B 98:6).

  335. See John 6:68.

  336. See John 15:16; Supplement, p. 606 (Pap. V B 116:6).

  337. See Adelbert v. Chamisso, Peter Schlemihl’s wundersame Geschichte (Nuremberg: 1835; ASKB 1630); Peter Schlemihl’s forunderlige Historie, tr. Frederik Schaldemose (Copenhagen: 1841); The Wonderful History of Peter Schlemihl, tr. Ilsa Barea (Emmaus, Pa.: Story Classics, n.d.).

  338. With reference to the remainder of the paragraph, see Supplement, pp. 606-07 (Pap. V B 116:7).

  339. See Shakespeare, Richard III, I, 2, 43-223; Foersom and Wulff, VI, pp. 184-96; Ortlepp, VII, pp. 279-87; Schlegel and Tieck, III, pp. 242-49; Kittredge, pp. 792-94 (Richard and Anne in dialogue).

  340. See Shakespeare, Henry IV, I, V, 1, 133-43; cf. Foersom and Wulff, III, p. 155; Ortlepp, VI, p. 231; Schlegel and Tieck, I, p. 300; Kittredge, p. 575:

  Can honour set to a leg? No. Or an arm? No. Or take away the grief of a wound? No. Honour hath no skill in surgery then? No. What is honour? A word. What is that word honour? Air. A trim reckoning! Who hath it? He that died a Wednesday. Doth he feel it? No. Doth he hear it? No. ‘Tis insensible then? Yea, to the dead. But will it not live with the living? No. Why? Detraction will not suffer it. Therefore I’ll none of it. Honour is a mere scutcheon—and so ends my catechism.

  341. See Revelation 21:1.

  342. See Luke 7:37-50.

  343. With reference to the following two paragraphs, see Supplement, p. 509 (Pap. IV A 133).

  344. With reference to the remainder of the sentence and the following two sentences, see Supplement, p. 607 (Pap. V B 107:3).

  345. See Plutarch, “Pyrrhus,” 21, Lives; Tetens, IV, p. 182; Loeb, IX, p. 417:

  The two armies [of Epirus and Rome] separated; and we are told that Pyrrhus said to one who was congratulating him on his victory [at Asculum], “If we are victorious in one more battle with the Romans, we shall be utterly ruined.” For he had lost a great part of the forces with which he came, and all his friends and generals except a few; moreover, he had no others whom he could summon from home, and he saw that his allies in Italy were becoming indifferent, while the army of the Romans, as if from a fountain gushing forth indoors, was easily and speedily filled up again, and they did not lose courage in defeat, nay, their wrath gave them all the more vigour and determination for the war.

  346. See Shakespeare, Henry VI, II, III, 2, 388-96; Schlegel and Tieck, III, p. 71; Kittredge, p. 729 (Suffolk speaking to Queen Margaret):

  If I depart from thee, I cannot live;

  And in thy sight to die, what were it else

  But like a pleasant slumber in thy lap?

  Here could I breathe my soul into the air,

  As mild and gentle as the cradle-babe

  Dying with mother’s dug between its lips;

  Where, from thy sight, I should be raging mad

  And cry out for thee to close up mine eyes,

  To have thee with thy lips to stop my mouth.

  347. J. L. Heiberg, Den farlige Taushed, Digte og Fortællinger, I-II (Copenhagen: 1834-35; ASKB 1551-52), I, p. 149.

  348. Presumably an allusion to Johann Georg Hamann. See JP II 556, 1558 (Pap. VI A 5; VII1 A 251).

  349. With reference to the remainder of the sentence, see Supplement, p. 607 (Pap. V B 108:1).

  350. For continuation of the phrase, see Supplement, p. 607 (Pap. V B 108:2).

  351. See Daniel 3:4-30.

  352. With reference to the remainder of the paragraph, see Supplement, p. 607 (Pap. V B 108:3).

  353. See Supplement, pp. 508, 566, 608 (Pap. IV A 119; V B 124, 132).

  354. See Daniel 2:4; Supplement, p. 608 (Pap. V B 139).

  355. With reference to the following section, see Supplement, pp. 610-12 (Pap. V B 137, 140).

  356. See Daniel 4:32-33.

  357. See Supplement, p. 513 (Pap V A 71); JP V 5325 (Pap. II A 757).

  358. See Supplement, p. 610 (Pap. V B 118:1).

  359. With reference to the following three paragraphs, see Supplement, p. 610 (Pap. V B 98:13).

  360. Cf. Johannes Climacus, p. 121, KW VII (Pap. IV B 1, pp. 107-08); Repetition, p. 166, KW VI (SV III 204-05).

  361. Cf. JP III 3065-66; V 5303; VI 6445 (Pap. XI1 A 195-96; II A 210; X1 A 546).

  362. With reference to the remainder of the paragraph and the following paragraph, see Supplement, p. 610 (Pap. V B 118:2).

  363. Terence, The Self-Tormentor, I, 25; Schmieder, p. 213; Guldberg, I, p. 276; Loeb, I, pp. 124-25.

  364. With reference to the following sentence, see Supplement, p. 611 (Pap. V B 118:3).

  365. For continuation of the paragraph, see Supplement, p. 611 (Pap. V B 118:5).

  366. See, for example, Plato, Symposium, 223 c-d; Opera, III, pp. 546-48; Heise, II, pp. 103-04; Dialogues, p. 574: “Socrates was arguing with the others—not that Aristodemus could remember very much of what he said, for, besides having missed the beginning, he was still more than half asleep. But the gist of it was that Socrates was forcing them to admit that the same man might be capable of writing both comedy and tragedy—that the tragic poet might be a comedian as well.”

  367. “Mediation” is the Danish (and English) version of the German Vermitt(e)lung. See, for example, Hegel, Wissenschaft der Logik, I, Werke, III, pp. 100, 105, 110; IV, p. 75; J.A., IV, pp. 110, 115, 120, 553; Hegel’s Science of Logic (tr. of W.L., Lasson ed., 1923; Kierkegaard had 2 ed., 1833-34), tr. A. V. Miller (New York: Humanities Press, 1969), pp. 99, 103, 107, 445; Encyclopädie, Die Logik, Werke, VI, pp. 133-34, 138; J.A., VIII, pp. 171-72, 176; Hegel’s Logic, pp. 101, 105. See also Anxiety, pp. 81-93, KW VIII (SV IV 350-63); JP II 1578; III 3072, 3294 (Pap. II A 454; III A 108; IV A 54).

  368. Holberg, Jacob von Tyboe, III, 5, Danske Skue-Plads, III, no pagination; Letters, Letter 37, KW XXV.

  369. See J. L. Heiberg, Kong Salomon og Jørgen Hattemager, 26; see note 316 above.

  370. With reference to the following three paragraphs, see Supplement, pp. 611-12 (Pap. V B 97:51).

  371. With reference to the following five sentences, see Supplement, p. 612 (Pap. V B 109:1).

  372. With reference to the following two sentences, see Supplement, p. 612 (Pap. V B 109:2).

  373. With reference to the following paragraph, see Supplement, pp. 612-13 (Pap. V B 97:49).

  374. With reference to the following ten paragraphs, see Supplement, p. 613 (Pap. V B 98:8).

  375. See I Corinthians 8:4.

  376. With reference to the following clause, see Supplement, p. 600 (Pap. V B 97:18).

  377. With reference to the remainder of the sentence, see Supplement, p. 613 (Pap. V B 119:1).

  378. With reference to the following sentence, see Supplement, p. 613 (Pap. V B 119:2).

  379. With reference to the remainder of the paragraph, see Supplement, pp. 613-14 (Pap. V B 119:3).

  380. With reference to the remainder of the paragraph, see Supplement, pp. 614-15 (Pap. V B 119:4).

  381. See Hegel, Wissenschaft der Logik, Werke, IV, pp. 177-83; J.A., IV, pp. 655-61; Science of Logic, pp. 523-38; Encyclopädie, Logik, Werke, VI, pp. 275-81; J.A., VIII, pp. 313-19; Hegel’s Logic, pp. 197-200. See also Either/Or, I, pp. 3-4, KW III (SV I v-vi).

  382. An allusion to N.F.S. Grundtvig’s “matchless discovery.” See p. 48 and note 131.

  383. An allusion to Grundtvig. See Supplement, pp. 581, 582 (Pap. V B 97:16, 102:4); Postscript, KW XII (SV VII 33).

  384. Danish: Kjøbstad, literally “buying place.”

  385. See p. 125 and note 58.

  386. See Baggesen, “Til Danfanas Døttre,” Værker, III, p. 60 (ed. tr.); Danfana (Copenhagen: 1816-17; ASKB 1508), January 1816, p. 9.

  387. Cf. Cicero, Orator, III, 12; M. Tullii Ciceronis opera omnia, I-IV and index, ed. Johann August Ernesti (Halle: 1756-57; ASKB 1224-29), I, p. 656; Brutus Orator, tr. H. M
. Hubbell (Loeb, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1971), pp. 313-15: “There indeed is the field for manifold and varied debate, which was first trodden by the feet of Plato.”

  388. With reference to the remainder of the paragraph, see Supplement, p. 615 (Pap. V B 98:17, 119:11).

  389. With reference to the following sentence, see Supplement, p. 615 (Pap. V B 97:27, 119:12).

  390. With reference to the following two sentences, see Supplement, p. 616 (Pap. V B 119:13).

  391. With reference to the remainder of the sentence, see Supplement, p. 616 (Pap. V B 119:14).

  392. With reference to the following two sentences, see Supplement, p. 616 (Pap. V B 119:15).

  393. For continuation of the paragraph, see Supplement, p. 616 (Pap. V B 119:16).

  394. See Supplement, p. 618 (Pap. V B 98:7).

  395. With reference to the remainder of the sentence, see Supplement, pp. 616-17 (Pap. V B 119:17).

  396. With reference to the following sentence, see Supplement, p. 617 (Pap. V B 119:18).

  397. With reference to the following two sentences and the following line, see Supplement, p. 617 (Pap. V B 119:19).

  398. See Plutarch, “Caesar,” 54, Lives; Loeb, VII, p. 569: “Being eager to take Cato alive, Caesar hastened towards Utica, for Cato was guarding that city, and took no part in the battle. But he learned that Cato had made away with himself, and he was clearly annoyed, though for what reason is uncertain. At any rate, he said: ‘Cato, I begrudge thee thy death; for thou didst begrudge me the preservation of thy life.’ ”

  399. Attributed to Bias, one of the Seven Wise Men of Greece. See Diogenes Laertius, I, 87; Vitis, I, p. 41; Riisbrigh, I, p. 38; Loeb, I, p. 91: “He advised men to measure life as if they had both a short and a long time to live.”

  400. An allusion to the sandman lullaby about Ole Lukøie (Ole Shut-Eye).

  401. With reference to the following two sentences, see Supplement, p. 617 (Pap. V B 110:1).

  402. See ”Doctor Faust,” 3, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing’s sämmtliche Schriften, I-XXXII (Berlin, Stettin: 1825-28; ASKB 1747-62), XXIII, p. 177 (ed. tr.): “No more and no less than the transition from good to evil.”

  403. With reference to the remainder of the paragraph, see Supplement, pp. 617-18 (Pap. V B 111).