Martin Buber Quotes

"Every person born into the world represents something new, something that never existed before, something original and unique....If there had been someone like her in the world, there would have been no need for her to be born." — Martin Buber as quoted in Narrative Means for Sober Ends, by Jon Diamond, p.78

Mundus vult decipi. The world winks at dishonesty. The world does not call it dishonesty.

You can rake the muck this way, rake the muck that way — it will always be muck. Have I sinned or have I not sinned? In the time I am brooding over it, I could be stringing pearls for the delight of Heaven

"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."

That you need God more than anything, you know at all times in your heart. But don’t you know also that God needs you — in the fullness of his eternity, you? How would man exist if God did not need him, and how would you exist? You need God in order to be, and God needs you — for that which is the meaning of your life.

The abyss and the light of the world,
Time's need and the craving for eternity,
Vision, event, and poetry:
Was and is dialogue with you.

But when a man draws a lifeless thing into his passionate longing for dialogue, lending it independence and as it were a soul, then there may dawn in him the presentiment of a world-wide dialogue with the world-happening that steps up to him even in his environment, which consists partially of things. Or do you seriously think that the giving and taking of signs halts on the threshold of that business where an honest and open spirit is found?

Egos appear by setting themselves apart from other egos.

Mundus vult decipi: the world wants to be deceived.

Feelings are 'entertained'; love comes to pass. Feelings dwell in man; but man dwells in his love.

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

As long as love is “blind” - that is, as long as it does not see a whole being - it does not yet truly stand under the basic word of relation. Hatred remains blind by its very nature; one can hate only part of a being.

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.

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.

The world in which you live, just as it is and not otherwise, affords you that association with God, which will redeem you and whatever divine aspect of the world you have been entrusted with. And your own character, the very qualities which make you what you are, constitutes your special approach to God, your special potential use for Him.