Paul Tillich Quotes
20 August 1886 – October 22, 1965
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The first duty of love is to listen.
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More Paul Tillich Quotes
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— Paul Tillich, The Courage To Be (1952), pp. 123-124
[American] conformism might approximate collectivism, not so much in economic respects, and not too much in political respects, but very much in the pattern of daily life and thought. Whether this will happen or not, and if it does to what degree, is partly dependent on the power of resistance in those who represent the opposite pole of the courage to be, the courage to be as oneself.
Paul Tillich— p. 112 (The Courage to Be (1952))
Individualism is the self-affirmation of the individual self as individual self without regard to its participation in its world. As such it is the opposite of collectivism, the self affirmation of the self as part of a larger whole without regard to its character as an individual self.
Paul Tillich— p. 113 (The Courage to Be (1952))
The courage to be as oneself within the atmosphere of Enlightenment is the courage to affirm oneself as a bridge from a lower to a higher state of rationality. It is obvious that this kind of courage to be must become conformist the moment its revolutionary attack on that which contradicts reason has ceased, namely in the victorious bourgeoisie.
Paul Tillich— p. 116 (The Courage to Be (1952))
The anxiety of fate is conquered by the self-affirmation of the individual as an infinitely significant microcosmic representation of the universe .
Paul Tillich— p. 120 (The Courage to Be (1952))
Even loneliness is not absolute loneliness because the contents of the universe are in him.
Paul Tillich— p. 121 (The Courage to Be (1952))
Enthusiasm for the universe, in knowing as well as in creating, also answers the question of doubt and meaninglessness. Doubt is the necessary tool of knowledge. And meaninglessness is no threat so long as enthusiasm for the universe and for man as its center is alive.
Paul Tillich— p. 121 (The Courage to Be (1952))
Knowledge of that which concerns us infinitely is possible only in an attitude of infinite concern.
Paul Tillich— p. 125 (The Courage to Be (1952))
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— p. 127 (The Courage to Be (1952))
In Calvinism and sectarianism man became more and more transformed into an abstract moral subject, as in Descartes he was considered an epistemological subject.
Paul Tillich— p. 133 (The Courage to Be (1952))
Knowledge of that which concerns us infinitely is possible only in an attitude of infinite concern.
Paul Tillich— Paul Tillich, The Courage To Be (1952), p. 125
Individualism is the self-affirmation of the individual self as individual self without regard to its participation in its world. As such it is the opposite of collectivism, the self affirmation of the self as part of a larger whole without regard to its character as an individual self.
Paul Tillich— Paul Tillich, The Courage To Be (1952), p. 113
One of the unfortunate consequences of the intellectualization of man's spiritual life was that the word "spirit" was lost and replaced by mind or intellect, and that the element of vitality which is present in “spirit” was separated and interpreted as an independent biological force. Man was divided into a bloodless intellect and a meaningless vitality. The middle ground between them, the spiritual soul, in which vitality and intentionality are united, was dropped.
Paul Tillich— Paul Tillich, The Courage To Be (1952), p. 82
The courage to be as oneself within the atmosphere of Enlightenment is the courage to affirm oneself as a bridge from a lower to a higher state of rationality. It is obvious that this kind of courage to be must become conformist the moment its revolutionary attack on that which contradicts reason has ceased, namely in the victorious bourgeoisie.
Paul Tillich— Paul Tillich, The Courage To Be (1952), p. 116
