QuoteProject
Love, in the sense of spontaneous, unreflective action, spells the death of the old man.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote suggests that pure, instinctive love can radically transform an individual, leading to the end of old, unproductive ways of being.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer's quote highlights the profound impact that genuine, unthinking love can have on a person. It implies that when one allows love to guide their actions without overthinking or second-guessing, it catalyzes a profound internal change, symbolically marking an end to outdated or negative characteristics ('the old man') that hinder personal growth and fulfillment.

Themes

LoveTransformationActionSpontaneitySelf-Growth

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used in a wedding speech to illustrate the transformative power of love in relationships.

More from Dietrich Bonhoeffer

A home is a kingdom of it's own in the midst of the world, a stronghold amid life's storms and stresses, a refuge, even a sanctuary.
Dietrich BonhoefferRead
In normal life we hardly realize how much more we receive than we give, and life cannot be rich without such gratitude. It is so easy to overestimate the importance of our own achievements compared with what we owe to the help of others.
Dietrich BonhoefferRead
Sometimes we just need a firm kick in the pants. An unsmiling expectation that if we mean all these wonderful things we talk about and sing about, then let’s see something to prove it.
Dietrich BonhoefferRead
It is God's earth out of which man is taken. From it he has his body. His body belongs to his essential being. Man's body is not his prison, his shell his exterior, but man himself. Man does not "have" a body; he does not "have" a soul; rather he "is" body and soul. Man in the beginning is really his body. He is one. He is his body, as Christ is completely his body, as the Church is the body of Christ
Dietrich BonhoefferRead
...And then, just when everything is bearing down on us to such an extent that we can scarcely withstand it, the Christmas message comes to tell us that all our ideas are wrong, and that what we take to be evil and dark is really good and light because it comes from God. Our eyes are at fault, that is all.
Dietrich BonhoefferRead
Anyone who thinks that his time is too valuable to spend keeping quiet will eventually have no time for God and his brother, but only for himself and for his own follies.
Dietrich BonhoefferRead

Similar quotes

The moon gives you light, and the bugles and the drums give you music, and my heart, O my soldiers, my veterans, my heart gives you love.
Walt WhitmanRead
If women didn't exist, all the money in the world would have no meaning.
Aristotle OnassisRead
Busy old fool, unruly sun, Why dost thou thus, Through windows, and through curtains, call on us? Must to thy motions lovers'seasons run? Saucy pedantic wretch, go chide Late schoolboys, and sour prentices, Go tell court-huntsmen that the King will ride, Call countryants to harvest offices; Love, all alike, no season knows, nor clime, Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time.
John DonneRead
down from his brow she ran his curls like thick hyacinth clusters full of blooms
HomerRead
Give me a thousand kisses, then a hundred, then a thousand more.
CatullusRead
She is immensely interested in him. She has even secret mischievous moments in which she wishes she could get him alone, on a desert island, away from all ties and with nobody else in the world to consider, and just drag him off his pedestal and see him making love like any common man.
George Bernard ShawRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.

Quote by Dietrich Bonhoeffer | QuoteProject