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Knowledge of that which concerns us infinitely is possible only in an attitude of infinite concern.

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
Knowledge
Existentialism
Infinitely
Concerns
Concern
Infinite
Attitude
Possible

More quotes by Paul Tillich

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Plato ... teaches the separation of the human soul from its home in the realm of pure essences. Man is estranged from what he essentially is. His existence in a transitory world contradicts his essential participation in the eternal world of ideas .
Paul Tillich
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Genuine forgiveness is participation, reunion overcoming the powers of estrangement. . . We cannot love unless we have accepted forgiveness, and the deeper our experience of forgiveness is, the greater is our love.
Paul Tillich
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In the courageous standing of uncertainty, faith shows most visibly its dynamic character.
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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.
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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
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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.
Paul Tillich
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The abundance of a grateful heart gives honor to God even if it does not turn to Him in words. An unbeliever who is filled with thanks for his very being has ceased to be an unbeliever.
Paul Tillich
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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
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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
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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
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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.
Paul Tillich
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Neurosis is the way of avoiding non-being by avoiding being.
Paul Tillich
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Fear, as opposed to anxiety, has a definite object, which can be faced, analyzed, attacked, endured... anxiety has no object, or rather, in a paradoxical phrase, its object is the negation of every object.
Paul Tillich
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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.
Paul Tillich
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The first duty of love is to listen.
Paul Tillich
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Mystical identification transcends the aristocratic virtue of courageous self-sacrifice. It is self- surrender in a higher, more complete, and more complete and more radical form. It is the perfect form of self-affirmation.
Paul Tillich
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Wisdom loves the children of men, but she prefers those who come through foolishness to wisdom.
Paul Tillich
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Fear is the absence of faith.
Paul Tillich
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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.
Paul Tillich
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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