1589: Martin Buber Quotes, Meeting the Thou

What are definitive Martin Buber quotes?

1923: “To man the world is twofold, in accordance with his twofold attitude.”

1923: “Primary words do not signify things, but they intimate relations.”

1923: “The primary word I–Thou can be spoken only with the whole being.”

1923: “The primary word I–It can never be spoken with the whole being.”

1923: “There is no I taken in itself, but only the I of the primary word I–Thou and the I of the primary word I–It.”

1923: “The Thou meets me through grace — it is not found by seeking.”

1923: “I become through my relation to the Thou; as I become I, I say Thou.”

1923: “All real living is meeting.”

1923: “The present arises only in virtue of the fact that the Thou becomes present.”

1923: “Love is responsibility of an I for a Thou.”

1923: “In the beginning is relation.”

1923: “Spirit is not in the I, but between I and Thou.”

1923: “Every means is an obstacle. Only when every means has collapsed does the meeting come about.”

1950: “There is something that can only be found in one place. It is a great treasure… The place where this treasure can be found is the place on which one stands.”

1950: “To begin with oneself, but not to end with oneself; to start from oneself, but not to aim at oneself; to comprehend oneself, but not to be preoccupied with oneself.”

1950: “This is the ultimate purpose: to let God in. But we can let him in only where we really stand, where we live, where we live a true life.”

Scott Douglas Jacobsen is the publisher of In-Sight Publishing (ISBN: 978–1–0692343) and Editor-in-Chief of *In-Sight: Interviews* (ISSN: 2369–6885). He writes for The Good Men Project, International Policy Digest (ISSN: 2332–9416), The Humanist (Print: ISSN 0018–7399; Online: ISSN 2163–3576), Basic Income Earth Network (UK Registered Charity 1177066), A Further Inquiry, and other media. He is a member in good standing of numerous media organizations.

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