Paul Tillich Quotes

Grace strikes us when we are in great pain and restlessness.

In the depth of the anxiety of having to die is the anxiety of being eternally forgotten.

Man is able to decide for or against reason, he is able to create beyond reason or to destroy below reason

We are known in a depth of darkness through which we ourselves do not even dare to look. And at the same time, we are seen in a height of a fullness which surpasses our highest vision.

Parents need to listen as much to their kids as they do to them: "The first duty of love is to listen."

Cynically speaking, one could say that it is true to life to be cynical about it.

Only the philosophical question is perennial, not the answers.

Man is not what he believes himself to be in his conscious decisions.

Where there is faith there is an awareness of holiness.

Faith is the state of being ultimately concerned.

Wine is like the incarnation--it is both divine and human

There is faith in every serious doubt, namely, the faith in the truth as such, even if the only truth we can express is our lack of truth.

Man is asked to make of himself what he is supposed to become to fulfill his destiny.

Spirit is the presence of what concerns us ultimately, the ground of our being and meaning.

Faith as the state of being ultimately concerned implies love, namely, the desire and urge toward the reunion of the seperated.

Man's ultimate concern must be expressed symbolically, because symbolic language alone is able to express the ultimate.

Faith embraces itself and the doubt about itself.

The vitality that can stand the abyss of meaninglessness is aware of a hidden meaning within the destruction of meaning.

In Calvinism and sectarianism man became more and more transformed into an abstract moral subject, as in Descartes he was considered an epistemological subject.

Man and nature belong together in their created glory – in their tragedy and in their salvation.

Courage is a greater virtue than love. At best, it takes courage to love.

Knowledge of that which concerns us infinitely is possible only in an attitude of infinite concern.

Since the last decades of the nineteenth century, revolt against the objectified world has determined the character of art and literature.

In the courageous standing of uncertainty, faith shows most visibly its dynamic character.

man is free, in so far as he has the power of contradicting himself and his essential nature. Man is free even from his freedom; that is, he can surrender his humanity

Wisdom loves the children of men, but she prefers those who come through foolishness to wisdom.

Love is the infinite which is given to the finite.

If my tongue were trained to measures, I would sing a stirring song.

The awareness of the ambiguity of one's highest achievements - as well as one's deepest failures - is a definite symptom of maturity.

Language has created the word “loneliness” to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word “solitude” to express the glory of being alone.

Man is the question he asks about himself, before any question has been formulated. It is, therefore, not surprising that the basic questions were formulated very early in the history of mankind.

Reason is the presupposition of faith, and faith is the fulfillment of reason.

Christianity sees in the picture of Jesus as the Christ a human life in which all forms of anxiety are present but in which all forms of despair are absent.

...only the philosophical question is perennial, not the answers.

Faith is an act of a finite being who is grasped by and turned to the infinite.

For love ... is the blood of life the power of reunion in the separated.

Language has created the word 'loneliness' to express the pain of being alone and the word 'solitude' to express the glory of being alone.

The courage to be is the courage to accept oneself in spite of being unacceptable.

The joy about our work is spoiled when we perform it not because of what we produce but because of the pleasure with which it can provide us or the pain against which it can protect us.

Doubt is not the opposite of faith it is one element of faith.

...sin is separation.

Loneliness expresses the pain of being alone and solitude expresses the glory of being alone.