Marry, and you will regret it; don’t marry, you will also regret it; marry or don’t marry, you will regret it either way. Laugh at the world’s foolishness, you will regret it; weep over it, you will regret that too; laugh at the world’s foolishness or weep over it, you will regret both. Believe a woman, you will regret it; believe her not, you will also regret it… Hang yourself, you will regret it; do not hang yourself, and you will regret that too; hang yourself or don’t hang yourself, you’ll regret it either way; whether you hang yourself or do not hang yourself, you will regret both. This, gentlemen, is the essence of all philosophy.
Søren Kierkegaard
The School of Life writes:
“To be human is constantly to need to make choices, he pointed out, and yet also to need to do so on the basis of woefully incomplete evidence.”
“In his book, Either/Or, first published in Copenhagen in 1843, Kierkegaard conceded that there is clearly an enormous amount we can do to clarify our thinking and reduce our chances of acting against our deeper interests.”
“But at a certain moment, there is also a need to face up to a reality which - once we have embraced it fully - may also prove remarkably cheering: that whatever we do will, in some ways, be slightly wrong.”
