Paul Tillich quotes

Paul Tillich was a German-American theologian and philosopher, recognized for his influential works on existentialist theology. His ideas bridged the gap between faith and modern philosophy, integrating religion with contemporary culture. He is remembered for his concept of the "courage to be" and for shaping twentieth-century religious thought. Here are 87 of his quotes:

The first duty of love is to listen. (Paul Tillich)
The courage to be is the courage to accept oneself, in spite of being unacceptable. View quote
Paul Tillich
Neurosis is the way of avoiding non-being by avoiding being. View quote
Paul Tillich
Doubt is not the opposite of faith; it is one element of faith. View quote
Paul Tillich
Boredom is rage spread thin. View quote
Paul Tillich
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. View quote
Paul Tillich
Astonishment is the root of philosophy. View quote
Paul Tillich
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. View quote
Paul Tillich
Faith is the state of being ultimately concerned. View quote
Paul Tillich
Decision is a risk rooted in the courage of being free. View quote
Paul Tillich
The courage to be is rooted in the God who appears when God has disappeared in the anxiety of doubt. (Paul Tillich)
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. View quote
Paul Tillich
I hope for the day when everyone can speak again of God without embarrassment. View quote
Paul Tillich
Man is asked to make of himself what he is supposed to become to fulfill his destiny. View quote
Paul Tillich
The anxiety of fate is conquered by the self-affirmation of the individual as an infinitely significant microcosmic representation of the universe. View quote
Paul Tillich
In a man like Friedrich von Schlegel the courage to be as an individual self produced complete neglect of participation, but it also produced, in reaction to the emptiness of this self-affirmation, the desire to return to a collective. Schlegel, and with him many extreme individualists in the last hundred years, became Roman Catholics. The courage to be as oneself broke down, and one turned to an institutional embodiment of the courage to be as a part. View quote
Paul Tillich
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. View quote
Paul Tillich
[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. View quote
Paul Tillich
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. View quote
Paul Tillich
Knowledge of that which concerns us infinitely is possible only in an attitude of infinite concern. View quote
Paul Tillich
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)
In Calvinism and sectarianism man became more and more transformed into an abstract moral subject, as in Descartes he was considered an epistemological subject. View quote
Paul Tillich
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. View quote
Paul Tillich
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. View quote
Paul Tillich
Dialectics is the way of seeking for truth by talking with others from different points of view, through "Yes" and "No," until a "Yes" has been reached which is hardened in the fire of many "No's" and which unites the elements of truth promoted in the discussion. It is most unfortunate that in recent years the name "dialectical theology" has been applied to a theology that is strongly opposed to any kind of dialectics and mediation and that constantly repeats the "Yes" to its own and the "No" to any other position. This has made it difficult to use the term "dialectical" to denote theological movements of a really dialectical, that is a mediating, character; and it has resulted in the cheap and clumsy way of dividing all theologians into naturalists and supernaturalists, or into liberals and orthodox. The Protestant Era by Paul Tillich 1948 Introduction. View quote
Paul Tillich