Martin Buber Quotes

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

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

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

I think no human being can give more than this. Making life possible for the other, if only for a moment.

Everything depends on inner change; when this has taken place, then, and only then does the world change.

A human being becomes whole not in virtue of a relation to himself [only] but rather in virtue of an authentic relation to another human being(s).

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

Solitude is the place of purification.

Every person born in this world represents something new, something that never existed before, something original and unique.

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

To love God truly, one must first love man. And if anyone tells you that he loves God and does not love his fellow-man, you will know that he is lying.

The true meaning of love one's neighbor is not that it is a command from God which we are to fulfill, but that through it and in it we meet God.

Human life and humanity come into being in genuine encounters. The hope for this hour depends upon the renewal of the immediacy of dialogue among human beings.

God made so many different kinds of people; why would God allow only one way to worship?

When a man has made peace within himself, he will be able to make peace in the whole world.

There is no room for God in him who is full of himself.

The world is not comprehensible, but it is embraceable: through the embracing of one of its beings.

I don't like religion much, and I am glad that in the Bible the word is not to be found.

Our relationships live in the space between us which is sacred.

Everyone has in him something precious that is in no one else.

Eclipse of the light of heaven, eclipse of God - such indeed is the character of the historic hour through which the world is now passing

We can learn to be whole by saying what we mean and doing what we say.

Nothing so tends to mask the face of God as religion; it can be a substitute for God himself.

What has to be given up is not the I, as most mystics suppose: this I is indispensable for any relationship, including the highest, which always presupposes an I and You.

To be old can be glorious if one has not unlearned how to begin.

In the beginning was the relationship.

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

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 is the meaning of your life.

Persons appear by entering into relation to other persons.

Egos appear by setting themselves apart from other egos.Persons appear byentering into relationwith other persons.

There is something that can be found in one place. It is a great treasure which may be called the fulfillment of existence. The place where this treasure can be found is the place where one stands

Let us, cautious in diction, And mighty in contradiction, Love powerfully.

Before his death, Rabbi Zusya said "In the coming world, they will not ask me: 'Why were you not Moses?' They will ask me: 'Why were you not Zusya?

Mundus vult decipi: the world wants to be deceived.

We should stake our whole existence on our willingness to explore and experience.

All real living is meeting.

He who loves brings God and the World together.

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

To begin with oneself but not to end with onself. To start from oneself but not to aim at oneself.

When I meet a man, I am not concerned about his opinions. I am concerned about the man.

And if there were a devil it would not be one who decided against God, but one who, in eternity, came to no decision.

So long as you "have" yourself, have yourself as an object, your experience of man is only as of a thing among things.

God is the "mysterium tremendum," that appears and overthrows, but he is also the mystery of the self-evident, nearer to me than my I.

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

Only men who are capable of saying Thou [an attitude of deep respect] to one another can truly say we with one another.

The future stands in need of you in order to be born.

Love is responsibility of an I for a You: in this consists what cannot consist in any feeling - the equality of all lovers.

The beating heart of the universe is holy joy.

You should carefully observe the way toward which your heart draws you, then choose this way with all your strength.

We may listen to our inner self-and still not know which ocean we hear roaring.