It’s not every day you come across a philosopher whose work has inspired people for over 80 years. But that is exactly who Martin Buber was. A thinker, writer and teacher, Buber’s life and work explored the relationship between human beings and God. His philosophy still inspires entrepreneurs today as they strive to create meaningful businesses and lives.
Discover the most known Relation, Power, Love, Experience, Life, World quotes from Martin Buber, and much more.
All actual life is encounter. — Martin Buber
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. — 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
True beings are lived in the present, the life of objects is lived in the past. — 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
The prophet is appointed to oppose the kind, and even more: history. — Martin Buber
Without being and remaining oneself, there is no love. — Martin Buber
Let us, cautious in diction, And mighty in contradiction, Love powerfully. — Martin Buber
He who loves brings God and the World together. — 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 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
We should also pray for the wicked among the peoples of the world; we should love them too. — Martin Buber
Feeling one ‘has’; love occurs. — 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
Love is responsibility of an I for a You: in this consists what cannot consist in any feeling–the equality of all lovers.. — Martin Buber
Dialogic is not to be identified with love. But love without dialogic, without real outgoing to the other, reaching to the other, the love remaining with itself–this is called Lucifer. — Martin Buber
God made so many different kinds of people; why would God allow only one way to worship? — 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
When a man has made peace within himself, he will be able to make peace in the whole world. — Martin Buber
Mundus vult decipi: the world wants to be deceived. — Martin Buber
One who truly meets the world goes out also to God. — Martin Buber
Every person born in this world represents something new, something that never existed before, something original and unique. — Martin Buber
Mundus vult decipi. The world winks at dishonesty. The world does not call it dishonesty. — Martin Buber
The world is not comprehensible, but it is embraceable: through the embracing of one of its beings. — Martin Buber
To look away from the world, or to stare at it, does not help a man to reach God; but he who sees the world in Him stands in His presence. — Martin Buber
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. — Martin Buber
Everything depends on inner change; when this has taken place, then, and only then does the world change. — Martin Buber
It is not the nature of the task, but its consecration, that is the vital thing. — Martin Buber
Creation is not a hurdle on the road to God, it is the road itself. — Martin Buber
An animal’s eyes have the power to speak a great language. — Martin Buber
Power abdicates only under the stress of counter–power. — Martin Buber
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
If we had the power over the ends of the earth, it would not give us that fulfillment of existence which a quiet devoted relationship to nearby life can give us. — 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
Whoever says You does not have something; he has nothing. But he stands in relation. — Martin Buber
What has to be given up is not the I, but that drive for self–affirmation which impels man to flee from the unreliable, unsolid, unlasting, unpredictable, dangerous world of relation into the having of things. — Martin Buber
Persons appear by entering into relation to other persons. — Martin Buber
What, then, does one experience of the You?––Nothing at all. For one does not experience it.––What, then, does one know of the You?––Only everything. For one no longer knows particulars. — Martin Buber
We should stake our whole existence on our willingness to explore and experience. — Martin Buber
So long as you ‘have’ yourself, have yourself as an object, your experience of man is only as of a thing among things. — Martin Buber
In the ice of solitude man becomes most inexorably a question to himself, and just because the question pitilessly summons and draws into play his most secret life he becomes an experience to himself. — Martin Buber
The real struggle is not between East and West, or capitalism and communism, but between education and propaganda. — Martin Buber
Inscrutably involved, we live in the currents of universal reciprocity. — Martin Buber
Check our courses to find out how you can start applying the wisdom of Martin Buber in your life and work. We believe that these quotes will inspire you as much as they have inspired us, and we hope that you take away some practical tips for making positive change in your world.
