Where does love come from and where does it have its origin and its source, where is the place it has its abode from which it flows? Yes, this place is hidden or is secret. There is a place in a person's innermost being; from this place flows the life of love, for "from the hear flows life". But you cannot see this place; however deeply you penetrate, the origin eludes you in remoteness and hiddenness. Even when you have penetrated furthest in, the origin is still a bit further in, like the source of the spring that is further away just when you are closest to it. From this place flows love along many paths, but along none of these paths can you force your way into its hidden origin. Just as God dwells in a light from which flows every ray that illuminates the world, yet no one can force his way along these paths in order to see God, since the paths of light turn into darkness when one turns toward the light - so love dwells in hiding or is hidden in the innermost being. [...]Love's hidden life is in the innermost being, unfathomable, and then in turn is in an unfathomable connectedness with all existence. Just as the quiet lake originates deep downs in hidden springs no eye has seen, so does a person's love originate even more deeply in God's love. If there were no gushing spring at the bottom, if God were not love, then there would be neither the little lake nor a human being's love. Just as the quiet lake originates darkly in the deep spring, so a human being's love originates misteriously in God's love.
Kierkegaard, Soren, Works of Love, edited and translated with introduction and notes by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong, Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1998, pp. 8-10
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