Quotes from Martin Buber

Those who tell of two ways and praise one are recognized as prophets or great teachers. They save men from confusion and hard choices. They offer a single choice that is easy to make because those who do not take the path that is commended to them live a wretched life. To walk far on this path may be difficult, but the choice is easy, and to hear the celebration of this path is pleasant. Wisdom offers simple schemes, but truth is not so simple.

Because we cannot circle above all existence – sleepless, unbroken, boundless, glowing – we content ourselves with being submerged and awakening .

Beziehung ist Gegenseitigkeit. Mein Du wirkt an mir, wie ich an ihm wirke. Unsre Schüler bilden uns, unsre Werke bauen uns auf. Der >>Böse<< wird offenbarend, wenn ihn das heilige Grundwort berührt. Wie werden wir von Kindern, wie von Tieren erzogen! Unerforschlich einbegriffen leben wir in der strömenden Allgegenseitigkeit.

We say 'far away'; the Zulu has for that a word which means, in our sentence form, 'There where someone cries out: "Oh mother, I am lost." ' The Fuegian soars above our analytic wisdom with a seven-syllabled word whose precise meaning is, 'They stare at one another, each waiting for the other to volunteer to do what both wish, but are not able to do.

True unity cannot be found, it can only be created. He who creates it realizes the unity of the world in the unity of his soul. Thus beforehand he must live through the tension of the world in his soul as his own soul's tension.

Whoever knows the world as something to be utilized knows God the same way. His prayers are a way of unburdening himself– and fall into the ears of the void. He– and not the 'atheist' who from the night and longing of his garret window addresses the nameless– is godless.

The legendary anecdote goes one stop beyond: the single incident in question conveys the meaning of life.

There are times of ripening when the true element of the human spirit, held down and buried, grows ready underground with such pressure and such tension that it merely waits to be touched by one who will touch it -- and then erupts.

Aller Widersinn, mit dem die Welt dich kränkt, tritt dich an, damit du den Sinn in ihm entdeckst, und aller Widerspruch, der in dir selbst dich peinigt, wartet auf deinen Spruch, ihn zu bannen.

Feelings one "has"; love occurs. Feelings dwell in man, but man dwells in his love.

The world is not divine sport; it is divine destiny. There is divine meaning in the life of the world; of man, of human persons, of you and of me.

The obstacle: for the improvement of the capacity for experience and use generally involves a decrease in man's power to relate—that power which alone can enable man to live in the spirit.

Mundus vult decipi: the world wants to be deceived. The truth is too complex and frightening; the taste for the truth is an acquired taste that few acquire. Not

Mundus vult decipi: the world wants to be deceived. The truth is too complex and frightening; the taste for the truth is an acquired taste that few acquire.

I contemplate a tree. I can accept it as a picture: a rigid pillar in a flood of light, or splashes of green traversed by the gentleness of the blue silver ground. I can feel it as movement: the flowing veins around the sturdy, striving core, the suckling of the roots, the breathing of the leaves, the infinite commerce with earth and air - and the growing itself in its darkness.

This is the kingdom of God, the kingdom of danger and of risk, of eternal beginning and eternal becoming, of opened spirit and of deep realization, the kingdom of holy insecurity.

All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.

An animal's eyes have the power to speak a great language.

When two people relate to each other authentically and humanly, God is the electricity that surges between them.

The atheist staring from his attic window is often nearer to God than the believer caught up in his own false image of God.

We can be redeemed only to the extent to which we see ourselves.

The real struggle is not between East and West, or capitalism and communism, but between education and propaganda.

I do not accept any absolute formulas for living. No preconceived code can see ahead to everything that can happen in a man's life. As we live, we grow and our beliefs change. They must change. So I think we should live with this constant discovery. We should be open to this adventure in heightened awareness of living. We should stake our whole existence on our willingness to explore and experience.

Everyone must come out of his Exile in his own way.