taken from: 'Journals' (1843)original text:'It is quite true what philosophy says: that life must be understood backwards. But then one forgets the other principle: that it must be lived forwards. Which principle, the more one thinks it through, ends exactly with the thought that temporal life can never properly be understood precisely because I can at no instant find complete rest in which to adopt the position: backwards.'about the quoted person:Danish philosopher and religious thinker who wrote literary and philosophical essays and who set the stage for modern existentialism. he is well-known for his works either-or: A Fragment of Life (1843), The Concept of Dread (1844), Existential Contribution (1846) and The Sickness Unto Death (1849).see søren kierkegaard for a comprehensive biography.