Quotation Life Death
No one comes back from the dead; no one has come into the world without weeping. No one asks when one wants to come in; no one asks when one wants to go out.
Søren Kierkegaard Either/Or · 1843
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The quotation comes from the Diapsalmata, a collection of aphorisms that opens Either/Or (1843). Kierkegaard published the book under the pseudonym Victor Eremita. Within it, the Diapsalmata are attributed to another fictional figure, “A”, a young aesthete. Kierkegaard used pseudonyms to indicate that the views expressed were not necessarily his own.
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Life Death
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The quotation reflects on the limits of human control over the beginning and end of life. Birth is presented as an event no one chooses, while death is treated as final and beyond ordinary human command. The reference to weeping at birth reinforces the idea that existence begins in vulnerability rather than deliberate choice.

The repeated phrase “no one asks” gives the passage a sense of impersonality. Individuals enter life without being consulted, and they cannot determine all the circumstances of leaving it. Within the broader concerns of Either/Or, the remark draws attention to finitude: human beings make choices within conditions they did not create and cannot fully control. The quotation therefore concerns mortality as well as freedom, emphasising the tension between personal agency and the larger limits imposed by existence itself.

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