Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) of Denmark was the first great existentialist. Reacting against Hegel's system, he stressed the reality of the concrete individual and the "leap of faith." He believed that life is absurd and irrational and calls, not for intellectual understanding, but for response. His work has been one of the strongest influences on twentieth century theology, psychology and literature.

A crowd--not this crowd or that, the crowd now living or the crowd long deceased, a crowd of humble people or of superior people, of rich or of poor, etc.--a crowd in its very concept is the untruth, by reason of the fact that it renders the individual completely impenitent and irresponsible, or at least weakens his sense of responsibility by reducing it a fraction.
- Soren Kierkegaard, "That Individual" (1859. in Kaufmann, Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre, 1956)