Paul Tillich's Quotes

The first duty of love is to listen.

Language... has created the word 'loneliness' to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word 'solitude' to express the glory of being alone.

Loneliness expresses the pain of being alone and solitude expresses the glory of being alone.

Our language has wisely sensed the two sides of being alone. It has created the word loneliness to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word solitude to express the glory of being alone.

Man's ultimate concern must be expressed symbolically, because symbolic language alone is able to express the ultimate.

The courage to be is the courage to accept oneself, in spite of being unacceptable.

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.

Doubt is not the opposite of faith; it is one element of faith.

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

Boredom is rage spread thin.

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

Decision is a risk rooted in the courage of being free.

Cruelty towards others is always also cruelty towards ourselves.

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.

Being religious means asking passionately the question of the meaning of our existence and being willing to receive answers, even if the answers hurt.

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

Faith is an act of a finite being who is grasped by, and turned to, the infinite.

If my tongue were trained to measures, I would sing a stirring song.

Man is asked to make of himself what he is supposed to become to fulfill his destiny.

Neurosis is the way of avoiding non-being by avoiding being.

There is no love which does not become help.

Astonishment is the root of philosophy.

Faith is the state of being ultimately concerned.

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.