Top 150 Quotes & Sayings by Martin Buber

Explore popular quotes and sayings by a German philosopher Martin Buber.

Last updated on November 8, 2024.

Martin Buber was an Austrian Jewish and Israeli philosopher best known for his philosophy of dialogue, a form of existentialism centered on the distinction between the I–Thou relationship and the I–It relationship. Born in Vienna, Buber came from a family of observant Jews, but broke with Jewish custom to pursue secular studies in philosophy. In 1902, he became the editor of the weekly Die Welt, the central organ of the Zionist movement, although he later withdrew from organizational work in Zionism. In 1923, Buber wrote his famous essay on existence, Ich und Du, and in 1925, he began translating the Hebrew Bible into the German language reflecting the patterns of the Hebrew language.

German - Philosopher | February 8, 1878 - June 13, 1965

Source: Wikipedia

I do, indeed, close my door at times and surrender myself to a book, but only because I can open the door again and see a human face looking at me.

Martin Buber

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

Martin Buber

There are three principles in a man's being and life, the principle of thought, the principle of speech, and the principle of action. The origin of all conflict between me and my fellow-men is that I do not say what I mean and I don't do what I say.

Martin Buber

Solitude is the place of purification.

Martin Buber

A person cannot approach the divine by reaching beyond the human. To become human, is what this individual person, has been created for.

Martin Buber

Through the Thou a person becomes I.

Martin Buber

The law is not thrust upon man; it rests deep within him, to waken when the call comes.

Martin Buber

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

Martin Buber

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

Martin Buber

God wants man to fulfill his commands as a human being and with the quality peculiar to human beings.

Martin Buber

Play is the exultation of the possible.

Martin Buber

For sin is just this, what man cannot by its very nature do with his whole being; it is possible to silence the conflict in the soul, but it is not possible to uproot it.

Martin Buber

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

Martin Buber

Man is like a tree. If you stand in front of a tree and watch it incessantly, to see how it grows, and to see how much it has grown, you will see nothing at all. But tend it at all times, prune the runners and keep it free of beetles and worms, and all in good time-it will come into its growth. It is the same with man: all that is necessary is for him to overcome his obstacles, and he will thrive and grow. But it is not right to examine him hour after hour to see how much has already been added to his stature.

Martin Buber

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

Martin Buber

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

Martin Buber

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

Martin Buber

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

Martin Buber

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.

Martin Buber

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

Martin Buber

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

Martin Buber

Persons appear by entering into relation to other persons.

Martin Buber

Meet the world with the fullness of your being, and you shall meet God. Of you wish to believe, love.

Martin Buber

The historical religions have the tendency to become ends in themselves, and, as it were, to put themselves in God's place, and, in fact, there is nothing that is so apt to obscure God's face as a religion.

Martin Buber

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.

Martin Buber

All actual life is encounter.

Martin Buber

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

Martin Buber

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.

Martin Buber

One cannot in the nature of things expect a little tree that has been turned into a club to put forth leaves.

Martin Buber

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?

Martin Buber

Since the primary motive of the evil is disguise, one of the places evil people are most likely to be found is within the church. What better way to conceal one's evil from oneself, as well as from others, than to be a deacon or some other highly visible form of Christian within our culture? ... I do not mean to imply that the evil are anything other than a small minority among the religious or that the religious motives of most people are in any way spurious. I mean only that evil people tend to gravitate toward piety for the disguise and concealment it can offer them.

Martin Buber

Every morning, I shall concern myself anew about the boundary, Between the love-deed-Yes and the power-deed-No, And pressing forward honor reality. We cannot avoid, Using power, Cannot escape the compulsion, To afflict the world, So let us, cautious in diction, And mighty in contradiction, Love powerfully.

Martin Buber

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

Martin Buber

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

Martin Buber

In spite of all similarities, every living situation has, like a newborn child, a new face, that has never been before and will never come again. It demands of you a reaction that cannot be prepared beforehand. It demands nothing of what is past. It demands presence, responsibility; it demands you.

Martin Buber

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

Martin Buber

Man wishes to be confirmed in his being by man, and wishes to have a presence in the being of the other…. Secretly and bashfully he watches for a YES which allows him to be and which can come to him only from one human person to another.

Martin Buber

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

Martin Buber

All real living is meeting.

Martin Buber

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

Martin Buber

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

Martin Buber

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

Martin Buber

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

Martin Buber

In the beginning was the relationship.

Martin Buber

Every man's foremost task is the actualization of his unique, unprecedented and never-recurring potentialities, and not the repetition of something that another, and be it even the greatest, has already achieved.

Martin Buber

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

Martin Buber

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

Martin Buber

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

Martin Buber

When people come to you for help, do not turn them off with pious words, saying, 'Have faith and take your troubles to God.' Act instead as though there were no God, as though there were only one person in the world who could help -- only yourself.

Martin Buber

I do not accept any absolute formulas for living. No preconceived code can see ahead to everything that can happen in a man's life. As we live, we grow and our beliefs change. They must change. So I think we should live with this constant discovery. We should be open to this adventure in heightened awareness of living. We should stake our whole existence on our willingness to explore and experience.

Martin Buber

He who loves brings God and the World together.

Martin Buber

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

Martin Buber

Real faith means holding ourselves open to the unconditional mystery which we encounter in every sphere of our life and which cannot be comprised in any formula. Real faith means the ability to endure life in the face of this mystery.

Martin Buber

Mundus vult decipi: the world wants to be deceived.

Martin Buber

If you want to raise a man from mud and filth, do not think it is enough to stay on top and reach a helping hand down to him. You must go all the way down yourself, down into mud and filth. Then take hold of him with strong hands and pull him and yourself out into the light.

Martin Buber

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

Martin Buber

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).

Martin Buber

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

Martin Buber

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

Martin Buber

God dwells wherever man lets Him in.

Martin Buber