Quote collection
149 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"When people come to you for help, do not turn them off with pious words, saying, 'Have faith and take your troubles to God.' Act instead as though there were no God, as though there were only one person in the world who could help -- only yourself."
"The real struggle is not between East and West, or capitalism and communism, but between education and propaganda."
"When two people relate to each other authentically and humanly, God is the electricity that surges between them."
"I do not accept any absolute formulas for living. No preconceived code can see ahead to everything that can happen in a man's life. As we live, we grow and our beliefs change. They must change. So I think we should live with this constant discovery. We should be open to this adventure in heightened awareness of living. We should stake our whole existence on our willingness to explore and experience."
"In spite of all similarities, every living situation has, like a newborn child, a new face, that has never been before and will never come again. It demands of you a reaction that cannot be prepared beforehand. It demands nothing of what is past. It demands presence, responsibility; it demands you."
"All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware."
"I think no human being can give more than this. Making life possible for the other, if only for a moment."
"Since the primary motive of the evil is disguise, one of the places evil people are most likely to be found is within the church. What better way to conceal one's evil from oneself, as well as from others, than to be a deacon or some other highly visible form of Christian within our culture? ... I do not mean to imply that the evil are anything other than a small minority among the religious or that the religious motives of most people are in any way spurious. I mean only that evil people tend to gravitate toward piety for the disguise and concealment it can offer them."
"Everything depends on inner change; when this has taken place, then, and only then does the world change."
"A human being becomes whole not in virtue of a relation to himself [only] but rather in virtue of an authentic relation to another human being(s)."
"The atheist staring from his attic window is often nearer to God than the believer caught up in his own false image of God."
"Solitude is the place of purification."
"Real faith means holding ourselves open to the unconditional mystery which we encounter in every sphere of our life and which cannot be comprised in any formula. Real faith means the ability to endure life in the face of this mystery."
"Every person born in this world represents something new, something that never existed before, something original and unique."
"An animal's eyes have the power to speak a great language."
"To love God truly, one must first love man. And if anyone tells you that he loves God and does not love his fellow-man, you will know that he is lying."
"The true meaning of love one's neighbor is not that it is a command from God which we are to fulfill, but that through it and in it we meet God."
"Every morning, I shall concern myself anew about the boundary, Between the love-deed-Yes and the power-deed-No, And pressing forward honor reality. We cannot avoid, Using power, Cannot escape the compulsion, To afflict the world, So let us, cautious in diction, And mighty in contradiction, Love powerfully."
"Human life and humanity come into being in genuine encounters. The hope for this hour depends upon the renewal of the immediacy of dialogue among human beings."
"Man is like a tree. If you stand in front of a tree and watch it incessantly, to see how it grows, and to see how much it has grown, you will see nothing at all. But tend it at all times, prune the runners and keep it free of beetles and worms, and all in good time-it will come into its growth. It is the same with man: all that is necessary is for him to overcome his obstacles, and he will thrive and grow. But it is not right to examine him hour after hour to see how much has already been added to his stature."