
“If you don't believe in the innate unreasonableness of human beings, just try raising children.”
1980s–1990s, Barbarians inside the Gates and Other Controversial Essays (1999)
Source: 2000s, Letter to a Christian Nation (2006), p. 80
“If you don't believe in the innate unreasonableness of human beings, just try raising children.”
1980s–1990s, Barbarians inside the Gates and Other Controversial Essays (1999)
“I feel no need for any other faith than my faith in human beings.”
This I Believe (1951)
Context: I believe in human beings, but my faith is without sentimentality. I know that in environments of uncertainty, fear, and hunger, the human being is dwarfed and shaped without his being aware of it, just as the plant struggling under a stone does not know its own condition. Only when the stone is removed can it spring up freely into the light. But the power to spring up is inherent, and only death puts an end to it. I feel no need for any other faith than my faith in human beings.
"Feminism: An Agenda" (1983)
Letters from a War Zone: Writings 1976-1987
Kunnumpuram, K. (2005) Towards a New Humanity: Reflections on the Church's Mission in India Today. Mumbai: St Pauls
On the Church
“The basis of all human fears, he thought. A closed door, slightly ajar.”
Source: 'Salem's Lot
“Human beings live in their myths. They only endure their realities.”
“Respect is one of the most elegant and cultural choices a human being can make.”
Original: (it) Il rispetto è una delle scelte più eleganti e culturali che un essere umano possa fare.
Source: prevale.net
“The fear of God at the beginning of faith is an unbearable thing to human nature.”
"Exposure of False Faith" (1524), in Revelation and Revolution: Basic Writings of Thomas Müntzer (1993), p. 117
Exposure of False Faith (1524)
Original: (de) Es ist der Natur ein unleidlichs Werk, die Furcht Gottes zum Anfang des Glaubens zu machen.
Message at Pickfair, Beverly Hills, California (1 June 1932), as quoted in Life Is A Jest (1974) edited by A. K. Hajra <!-- or 6 January? 1932 Me p100-101 -->
General sources
Context: Life becomes meaningful and all activities are purposeful only on the basis of faith in the enduring reality. … The greatest romance possible in life is to discover this Eternal Reality in the midst of infinite change. Once, one has experienced this, one sees oneself in everything that lives, one recognises all of life as his life, everybody's interests as his own. One is no longer bound by habits of the past, no longer swayed by the hopes of the future — One lives in and enjoys each present moment to the full. There is no greater romance in life than this adventure in realization.