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
Answers
Hurt
Existence
Passionately
Religious
Receive
Religion
Asking
Means
Meaning
Mean
Question
Even
Willing

More quotes by Paul Tillich

Image
Being human means asking the questions of one's own being and living under the impact of the answers given to this question. And, conversely, being human means receiving answers to the questions of one's own being and asking questions under the impact of the answers.
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
Image
We have to build a better man before we can build a better society.
Paul Tillich
Image
Loneliness can be conquered only by those who can bear solitude.
Paul Tillich
Image
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
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
Knowledge of that which concerns us infinitely is possible only in an attitude of infinite concern.
Paul Tillich
Image
The existential attitude is one of involvement in contrast to a merely theoretical or detached attitude. Existential in this sense can be defined as participating in a situation, especially a cognitive situation, with the whole of one's existence.
Paul Tillich
Image
Man is asked to make of himself what he is supposed to become to fulfill his destiny.
Paul Tillich
Image
Grace strikes us when we are in great pain ....Sometimes at that moment a wave of light breaks into our darkness, and it is as though a voice were saying, 'You are accepted.'
Paul Tillich
Image
Neurosis is the way of avoiding non-being by avoiding being.
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
I loved thee beautiful and kind, And plighted an eternal vow So altered are thy face and mind, t'were perjury to love thee now!
Paul Tillich
Image
Accept the fact that you are accepted, despite the fact that you are unacceptable.
Paul Tillich
Image
Wisdom loves the children of men, but she prefers those who come through foolishness to wisdom.
Paul Tillich
Image
Doubt is the necessary tool of knowledge.
Paul Tillich
Image
The first duty of love is to listen.
Paul Tillich
Image
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.
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
Decision is a risk rooted in the courage of being free.
Paul Tillich