It is perfectly true, as the philosophers say, that life must be understood backwards. But they forget the other proposition, that it must be lived forwards.

Longer English translation by Palle Jorgensen: "It is really true what philosophy tells us, that life must be understood backwards. But with this, one forgets the second proposition, that it must be lived forwards. A proposition which, the more it is subjected to careful thought, the more it ends up concluding precisely that life at any given moment cannot really ever be fully understood; exactly because there is no single moment where time stops completely in order for me to take position [to do this]: going backwards."

Journals IV A 164 (1843) | See Phenomenology: Critical Concepts in Philosophy, by Dermot Moran (2002) | We live forward, but we understand backward. | Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards. | 1845