Frederick Buechner: Human

Frederick Buechner is Poet, novelist, short story writer, theologian. Explore interesting quotes on human.
Frederick Buechner: 134 quotes13 likes

“If we are to believe he is really alive with all that that implies, then we have to believe without proof. And of course that is the only way it could be. If it could be somehow proved, then we would have no choice but to believe. We would lose our freedom not to believe. And in the very moment that we lost that freedom, we would cease to be human beings. Our love of God would have been forced upon us, and love that is forced is of course not love at all. Love must be freely given. Love must live in the freedom not to love; it must take risks. Love must be prepared to suffer even as Jesus on the Cross suffered, and part of that suffering is doubt.”

Frederick Buechner

The Magnificent Defeat (1966)

“I not only have my secrets, I am my secrets. And you are yours. Our secrets are human secrets, and our trusting each other enough to share them with each other has much to do with the secret of what it means to be human.”

Frederick Buechner

“Remember Jesus of Nazareth, staggering on broken feet out of the tomb toward the Resurrection, bearing on his body the proud insignia of the defeat which is victory, the magnificent defeat of the human soul at the hands of God.”

Frederick Buechner

Source: The Magnificent Defeat

“You can survive on your own; you can grow strong on your own; you can prevail on your own; but you cannot become human on your own.”

Frederick Buechner

Source: The Sacred Journey: A Memoir of Early Days (1982)

“Religion as a word points to that area of human experience where in one way or another man comes upon mystery as a summons to pilgrimage; where he senses meanings no less overwhelming because they can be only hinted at in myth and ritual; where he glimpses a destination that he can never know fully until he reaches it.”

Frederick Buechner

Listening to Your Life: Daily Meditations with Frederick Buechner (1992)

“Nothing human's not a broth of false and true.”

Frederick Buechner book Godric

Godric (1980)

“Stop trying to protect, to rescue, to judge, to manage the lives around you... remember that the lives of others are not your business. They are their business. They are God’s business... even your own life is not your business. It also is God’s business. Leave it to God. It is an astonishing thought. It can become a life-transforming thought... unclench the fists of your spirit and take it easy... What deadens us most to God’s presence within us, I think, is the inner dialogue that we are continuously engaged in with ourselves, the endless chatter of human thought. I suspect that there is nothing more crucial to true spiritual comfort... than being able from time to time to stop that chatter...”

Frederick Buechner

Telling Secrets (1991)

“Words spoken in deep love or deep hate set things in motion within the human heart that can never be reversed.”

Frederick Buechner

Secrets in the Dark: A Life in Sermons (2006)