Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.
Faith is a marvel, and yet no human being is excluded from it; for that in which all human life is united is passion, and faith is a passion.
You should therefore say: alone in one’s boat, alone with one’s care, alone with one’s despair, which one is craven enough to want rather to keep than submit to the pain of being healed.
Theology sits rouged at the window and courts philosophy’s favor, offering to sell her charms to it.
For he who loves God without faith reflects on himself, while the person who loves God in faith reflects on God.
The paradox in Christian truth is invariably due to the fact that it is the truth that exists for God. The standard of measure and the end is superhuman; and there is only one relationship possible: faith.
It is impossible to exist without passion.
The proud person always wants to do the right thing, the great thing. But because he wants to do it in his own strength, he is fighting not with man, but with God.
On the secretly blushing cheek is reflected the glow of the heart.
My standpoint is armed neutrality.
It is very important in life to know when your cue comes.
No one may pride himself at being more than an individual, and no one despondently think that he is not an individual...
Don’t you know that a midnight hour comes when everyone has to take off his mask? Do you think life always lets itself be trifled with? Do you think you can sneak off a little before midnight to escape this?
Only the noble of heart are called to difficulty.
What looks like politics, and imagines itself to be political, will one day unmask itself as a religious movement.
It is the duty of the human understanding to understand that there are things which it cannot understand...
What if everything in the world were a misunderstanding, what if laughter were really tears?
Where am I? Who am I? How did I come to be here? What is this thing called the world? How did I come into the world? Why was I not consulted? And If I am compelled to take part in it, where is the director? I want to see him.
The task must be made difficult, for only the difficult inspires the noble-hearted.
Nothing is as heady as the wine of possibility.