Take away paradox from the thinker and you have a professor.

Kierkegaard’s remark contrasts the living, risk-taking activity of “thinking” with the settled routines of academic instruction. For him, paradox is not a decorative trick but a sign that thought has reached the limits of what can be neatly systematized—especially in matters of existence, faith, and subjectivity. A “professor” here functions as a type: someone who explains, categorizes, and transmits established knowledge, often smoothing away the tensions that make ideas existentially urgent. The line implies that when paradox is removed, thought becomes safe, teachable, and conventional—losing the unsettling edge that forces a person to confront ambiguity, commitment, and inwardness.