Quotes by Theologian

“Where principles and heart stand in conflict with each other, let us make the law of the spirit free from the law of principles.”

“A man is ethical only when life, as such, is sacred to him.”

“All the kindness which a man puts out into the world works on the heart and thoughts of mankind.”

“Our age is bent on trying to make the barren tree of skepticism fruitful by tying the fruits of truth on its branches.”

“If you study life deeply, its profundity will seize you suddenly with dizziness.”

“Ethics cannot be based upon our obligations toward people, but they are complete and natural only when we feel this Reverence for Life and the desire to have compassion for and to help all creatures insofar as it is in our power. I think that this ethic will become more and more recognized because of its great naturalness and because it is the foundation of a true humanism toward which we must strive if our culture is to become truly ethical.”

“The the question whether I am a pessimist or an optimist, I answer that my knowledge is pessimistic, but my willing and hope are optimistic.”

“You must not expect anything from others. It's you, of yourself, of whom you must ask a lot. Only from oneself has one the right to ask everything and anything. This way it's up to you - your own choices - what you get from others remains a present, a gift.”

“We cannot possibly let ourselves get frozen into regarding everyone we do not know as an absolute stranger.”

“Each act of unfaithfulness toward our inner being is a blot on our souls. If we continue to be unfaithful, our souls are eventually torn apart and we slowly bleed to death.”

“The ethic of Reverence for Life prompts us to keep each other alert to what troubles us and to speak and act dauntlessly together in discharging the responsibility that we feel. It keeps us watching together for opportunities to bring some sort of help to animals in recompense for the great misery that men inflict upon them, and thus for a moment we escape from the incomprehensible horror of existence.”

“We must fight against the spirit of unconscious cruelty with which we treat the animals. Animals suffer as much as we do. True humanity does not allow us to impose such sufferings on them. It is our duty to make the whole world recognize it. Until we extend our circle of compassion to all living things, humanity will not find peace.”

“The most difficult thing I have ever had to do is follow the guidance I prayed for.”

“What the activity of this disposition of ours means in the evolution of the world, we do not know. Nor can we regulate this activity from outside; we must leave entirely to each individual its shaping and its extension. From every point of view, then, world- and life-affirmation and ethics are non-rational, and we must have the courage to admit it.”

“No one can give a definition of the soul. But we know what it feels like. The soul is the sense of something higher than ourselves, something that stirs in us thoughts, hopes, and aspirations which go out to the world of goodness, truth and beauty. The soul is a burning desire to breathe in this world of light and never to lose it--to remain children of light.”

“Your life is something opaque, not transparent, as long as you look at it in an ordinary human way. But if you hold it up against the light of God's goodness, it shines and turns transparent, radiant and bright. And then you ask yourself in amazement: Is this really my own life I see before me?”

“Faith which refuses to face indisputable facts is but little faith. Truth is always gain, however hard it is to accommodate ourselves to it. To linger in any kind of untruth proves to be a departure from the straight way of faith.”

“The thinking man must oppose all cruelties no matter how deeply rooted in tradition or surrounded by a halo.”

“Seek always to do some good, somewhere. Every man has to seek in his own way to realize his true worth. You must give some time to your fellow man. For remember, you don't live in a world all your own. Your brothers are here too.”

“The only way out of today's misery is for people to become worthy of each other's trust.”

“A man can do only what he can do. But if he does that each day he can sleep at night and do it again the next day.”

“Pain is a more terrible lord of mankind than even death itself.”

“It seemed incredible to me, that physical courage should be so commonplace and revered, while moral courage . . . is so rare and despised.”

“All work that is worth anything is done in faith.”