Fear and Trembling

by Søren Kierkegaard

I became aware that I was involved in so many doubts, so many errors, that all efforts to learn were, as I saw it, of no other help to me than I might more and more discover my ignorance.]

having fought the good fight and kept the faith, his heart was still young enough not to have forgotten that fear and trembling which chastened the youth, which the man indeed held in check, but which no man quite outgrows

So were it not better if he had not been God’s elect ? What is it to be God’s elect ? It is to be denied in youth the wishes of youth, so as with great pains to get them fulfilled in old age.

Yet Abraham believed, and believed for this life. Yea, if his faith had been only for a future life, he surely would have cast everything away in order to hasten out of this world to which he did not belong.

for really this is not faith but the furthest possibility of faith which has a presentiment of its object at the extremest limit of the horizon, yet is separated from it by a yawning abyss within which despair carries on its game.

Who gave strength to Abraham’s arm ? Who held his right hand up so that it did not fall limp at his side ? He who gazes at this becomes paralyzed. Who gave strength to Abraham’s soul, so that his eyes did not grow dim, so that he saw neither Isaac nor the ram ? He who gazes at this becomes blind.