“I do not accept any absolute formulas for living. No preconceived code can see ahead to everything that can happen in a man's life.”
As quoted in Martin Buber : An Intimate Portrait (1971), p. 56
Context: I do not accept any absolute formulas for living. No preconceived code can see ahead to everything that can happen in a man's life. As we live, we grow and our beliefs change. They must change. So I think we should live with this constant discovery. We should be open to this adventure in heightened awareness of living. We should stake our whole existence on our willingness to explore and experience.
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Martin Buber 58
German Jewish Existentialist philosopher and theologian 1878–1965Related quotes
Variant: Jamie saved my life. She taught me everything. About life, hope and the long journey ahead. I'll always miss her. But our love is like the wind. I can't see it, but I can feel it." - Landon Carter
Source: A Walk to Remember
“You can accept to lose everything in life, but not courage and time.”
Source: Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code, 1999, p. 15
Source: Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code, 1999, p. 15
Science and Spirit interview (2004)
Context: We all eat or are eaten. That's the way life works, it's a greater rhythm. And that's why science and the understandings it has uncovered can be a source of joy.
This all relates to assent, a very important Judeo-Christian concept. "Thy will be done" is a God-kind of assent. "God works in mysterious ways," and you're supposed to give assent even if you don't like it. As a religious naturalist, I think of assent differently. Assent is saying, "Okay, for whatever reason, this is the way life works. It's an acceptance of what is. After that fundamental acceptance, I can live my life to minimize suffering and promote as much as good as I can, and try through whatever work I do to help others." We can't get around death, but we can get around poverty. We can try to avoid women being brutalized. We can curb environmental degradation.
One can start from the perspective of a religious naturalist or from the perspective of the world religions and arrive at the same place: a moral imperative that this Earth and its creatures be respected and cherished.