In a footnote in Fear and Trembling explaining the phrase “things do not go in the world as the preacher preaches,” Kierkegaard says, “In the old days, people said: It is too bad that things do not go in the world as the preacher preaches. Maybe the time will come, especially with the aid of philosophy, when they can say: Fortunately things do not go as the preacher preaches, for there is still some meaning in life, but there is none in his sermons.”