Quotes from Paul Tillich

In Calvinism and sectarianism man became more and more transformed into an abstract moral subject, as in Descartes he was considered an epistemological subject.

We can speak without voice to the trees and the clouds and the waves of the sea. Without words they respond through the rustling of leaves and the moving of clouds and the murmuring of the sea.

Man and nature belong together in their created glory – in their tragedy and in their salvation.

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

Parents need to listen as much to their kids as they do to them: "The first duty of love is to listen."

Astonishment is the root of philosophy.

I hope for the day when everyone can speak again of God without embarrassment.

The name of this infinite and inexhaustible depth and ground of all being is God.

The courage to be is rooted in the God who appears when God has disappeared in the anxiety of doubt.

There is no place to which we could flee from God, which is outside of God.

He who knows about depth knows about God.

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.

God does not exist. He is being-itself beyond essence and existence. Therefore to argue that God exists is to deny him.

Doubt is the necessary tool of knowledge.

The separation of faith and love is always a consequence of a deterioration of religion.

Reason is the presupposition of faith, and faith is the fulfillment of reason.

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

Culture (science) is the form of religion; Religion is the substance of culture (science).

We have to build a better man before we can build a better society.

Faith consists in being vitally concerned with that ultimate reality to which I give the symbolical name of God. Whoever reflects earnestly on the meaning of life is on the verge of an act of faith.

Morality [or ethics] is not a subject; it is a life put to the test in dozens of moments.

Cynically speaking, one could say that it is true to life to be cynical about it.

He who risks and fails can be forgiven. He who never risks and never fails is a failure in his whole being.

The awareness of the ambiguity of one's highest achievements, as well as one's deepest failures is a definite symptom of maturity.