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One need ask only 'What for? What am I to unify my being for?' The reply is: Not for my own sake.

Martin Buber

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Martin Buber
Age: 87 †
Born: 1878
Born: February 8
Died: 1965
Died: June 13
Bible Translator
Educator
Existentialist
Literary Editor
Pedagogue
Philosopher
Translator
University Teacher
Writer
Vienna
Austria
Needs
Unify
Reply
Sake
Asks
Need

More quotes by Martin Buber

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Every man's foremost task is the actualization of his unique, unprecedented and never-recurring potentialities, and not the repetition of something that another, and be it even the greatest, has already achieved.
Martin Buber
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There are three principles in a man's being and life, the principle of thought, the principle of speech, and the principle of action. The origin of all conflict between me and my fellow-men is that I do not say what I mean and I don't do what I say.
Martin Buber
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Nothing can doom man but the belief in doom, for this prevents the movement of return.
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There is something that can be found in one place. It is a great treasure which may be called the fulfillment of existence. The place where this treasure can be found is the place where one stands
Martin Buber
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The beating heart of the universe is holy joy.
Martin Buber
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What is it that is eternal: the primal phenomenon, present in the here and now, of what we call revelation? It is man's emerging from the moment of the supreme encounter, being no longer the same as he was when entering into it.
Martin Buber
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Before his death, Rabbi Zusya said In the coming world, they will not ask me: 'Why were you not Moses?' They will ask me: 'Why were you not Zusya?
Martin Buber
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And if there were a devil it would not be one who decided against God, but one who, in eternity, came to no decision.
Martin Buber
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You can rake the muck this way, rake the muck that way-- it will always be muck. Have I sinned or have I not sinned? In the time I am brooding over it, I could be stringing pearls for the delight of Heaven
Martin Buber
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What you must do is love your neighbor as yourself. There is no one who knows your many faults better than you! But you love yourself notwithstanding. And so you must love your neighbor, no matter how many faults you see in him.
Martin Buber
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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.
Martin Buber
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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.
Martin Buber
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Everything is full of sacramental substance, everything. Each thing and each function is ever ready to light up into a sacrament.
Martin Buber
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You do not attain to knowledge by remaining on the shore and watching the foaming waves, you must make the venture and cast yourself in, you must swim, alert and with all your force, even if a moment comes when you think you are losing consciousness in this way, and in no other, do you reach anthropological insight.
Martin Buber
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Let us, cautious in diction, And mighty in contradiction, Love powerfully.
Martin Buber
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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.
Martin Buber
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Only men who are capable of saying Thou [an attitude of deep respect] to one another can truly say we with one another.
Martin Buber
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Our relationships live in the space between us which is sacred.
Martin Buber
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The future stands in need of you in order to be born.
Martin Buber
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To look away from the world, or to stare at it, does not help a man to reach God but he who sees the world in Him stands in His presence.
Martin Buber