Quote

Being religious means asking passionately the question of the meaning of our existence and being willing to receive answers, even if the answers hurt.

Paul Tillich

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Paul Tillich
Age: 79 †
Born: 1886
Born: August 20
Died: 1965
Died: October 22
Philosopher
Theologian
University Teacher
Paul Johannes Oskar Tillich
Paul Johannes Tillich
Even
Willing
Answers
Hurt
Existence
Passionately
Religious
Receive
Religion
Asking
Means
Meaning
Mean
Question

More quotes by Paul Tillich

Image
Our search for such [moral] principles can start with . . . the unconditional imperative to acknowledge every person as a person. If we ask for the contents given by this absolute, we find, first, something negative-the command not to treat a person as a thing. This seems little, but it is much. It is the core of the principle of justice.
Paul Tillich
Image
Every institution is inherently demonic.
Paul Tillich
Image
Decision is a risk rooted in the courage of being free.
Paul Tillich
Image
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.
Paul Tillich
Image
In the courageous standing of uncertainty, faith shows most visibly its dynamic character.
Paul Tillich
Image
The character of human life, like the character of the human condition, like the character of all life, is ambiguity: the inseparable mixture of good and evil, the true and false, the creative and destructive forces-both individual and social.
Paul Tillich
Image
Enthusiasm for the universe, in knowing as well as in creating, also answers the question of doubt and meaninglessness. Doubt is the necessary tool of knowledge. And meaninglessness is no threat so long as enthusiasm for the universe and for man as its center is alive.
Paul Tillich
Image
The fatal pedagogical error is to throw answers like stones at the heads of those who have not yet asked the questions.
Paul Tillich
Image
Wisdom loves the children of men, but she prefers those who come through foolishness to wisdom.
Paul Tillich
Image
There is no condition for forgiveness.
Paul Tillich
Image
Religion is the state of being grasped by an ultimate concern, a concern which qualifies all other concerns as preliminary and which itself contains the answer to the question of a meaning of our life.
Paul Tillich
Image
Existential anxiety of doubt drives the person toward the creation of certitude of systems of meaning, which are supported by tradition and authority. Neurotic anxiety builds a narrow castle of certitude which can be defended with the utmost certainty.
Paul Tillich
Image
Theology moves back and forth between two poles, the eternal truth of its foundations and the temporal situation in which the eternal truth must be received.
Paul Tillich
Image
Doubt is not the opposite of faith it is one element of faith.
Paul Tillich
Image
Man and nature belong together in their created glory – in their tragedy and in their salvation.
Paul Tillich
Image
Accept the fact that you are accepted, despite the fact that you are unacceptable.
Paul Tillich
Image
The anxiety of fate is conquered by the self-affirmation of the individual as an infinitely significant microcosmic representation of the universe .
Paul Tillich
Image
Astonishment is the root of philosophy.
Paul Tillich
Image
Nothing truly real is forgotten eternally, because everything real comes from eternity and goes to eternity.
Paul Tillich
Image
The basic anxiety, the anxiety of a finite being about the threat of non-being, cannot be eliminated. It belongs to existence itself.
Paul Tillich