Love is responsibility of an I for a You: in this consists what cannot consist in any feeling - the equality of all lovers.
Interpretation
Love transcends mere feelings; it is an active commitment to care for another person as an equal.
Martin Buber's quote emphasizes that love involves a profound responsibility between individuals, where one person (the 'I') actively engages and commits to the well-being of another (the 'You'). This perspective highlights that true love is not just a feeling but a conscious choice to uphold equality and mutual care between lovers, suggesting that love is rooted in shared responsibility rather than emotional dependency.
In practice
In a wedding ceremony, one might quote this to emphasize the responsibility that partners take for one another.
When I confront a human being as my Thou and speak the basic word I-Thou to him, then he is no thing among things nor does he consist of things. He is no longer He or She, a dot in the world grid of space and time, nor a condition to be experienced and described, a loose bundle of named qualities. Neighborless and seamless, he is Thou and fills the firmament. Not as if there were nothing but he; but everything else lives in his light.
Play is the exultation of the possible.
There is no room for God in him who is full of himself.
Every person born in this world represents something new, something that never existed before, something original and unique.
It is usual to think of good and evil as two poles, two opposite directions, the antithesis of one another...We must begin by doing away with this convention.
God dwells wherever man lets Him in.
Charity, patience and tenderness are very beautiful gifts. If you have them, you want to share them with others.
But strictly held by none, is loosely bound By countless silken ties of love and thought To everything on earth the compass round, And only by one's going slightly taut In the capriciousness of summer air Is of the slightest bondage made aware.
If you want a love message to be heard, it has got to be sent out. To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it.
He smiles at me, and I am suddenly seventeen again - the year I realize that love doesn't follow the rules, the year I understood that nothing is worth having so much as something unattainable
I have pursued her, as love hath pursued me
Only God knows how much I love you.
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