If someone who wanted to learn to dance were to say: For centuries, one generation after the other has learned the positions, and it is high time that I take advantage of this and promptly begin with the quadrille—people would presumably laugh a little at him, but in the world of spirit [i.e., development of one’s soul] this is [thought to be] very plausible. What, then, is education? I believed it is the course the individual goes through in order to catch up with himself, and the person who will not go through this course is not much helped by being born in the most enlightened age.
Søren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling, III 96 (trans. H. V. Hong and E. H. Hong). Annotations are mine.
Søren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling, III 96 (trans. H. V. Hong and E. H. Hong). Annotations are mine.