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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

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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
Finite
Belongs
Basic
Anxiety
Threat
Existence
Cannot
Eliminated

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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.'
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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.
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In this respect fundamentalism has demonic traits. It destroys the humble honesty of the search for truth, it splits the conscience of its thoughtful adherents, and it makes them fanatical because they are forced to suppress elements of truth of which they are dimly aware
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Man is asked to make of himself what he is supposed to become to fulfill his destiny.
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Faith is an act of a finite being who is grasped by, and turned to, the infinite.
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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.
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Astonishment is the root of philosophy.
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Wisdom loves the children of men, but she prefers those who come through foolishness to wisdom.
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God does not exist. He is being-itself beyond essence and existence. Therefore to argue that God exists is to deny him.
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Courage is a greater virtue than love. At best, it takes courage to love.
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In the depth of the anxiety of having to die is the anxiety of being eternally forgotten.
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We have to build a better man before we can build a better society.
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Neurosis is the way of avoiding non-being by avoiding being.
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The name of this infinite and inexhaustible depth and ground of all being is God.
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Doubt is the necessary tool of knowledge.
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Faith as ultimate concern is an act of the total personality. It happens in the center of the personal life and includes all its elements. Faith is the most centered act of the human mind. It is not a movement of a special section or a special function of man's total being. They all are united in the act of faith.
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Man and nature belong together in their created glory – in their tragedy and in their salvation.
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