QuoteProject
Being religious means asking passionately the question of the meaning of our existence and being willing to receive answers, even if the answers hurt.
Paul Tillich
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Being religious involves a deep quest for existential meaning and accepting uncomfortable truths.

This quote by Paul Tillich suggests that true religiosity is characterized by a fervent inquiry into the purpose of life and existence. It emphasizes the importance of not only seeking answers to profound questions but also being open to receiving those answers, even when they may challenge our beliefs or cause discomfort. It highlights the serious commitment to understanding life's deeper meanings and the courage required to confront potentially painful truths.

Themes

ReligionMeaningExistenceQuestionsTruth

In practice

Example use cases

During a philosophy class, discussing the nature of existence and faith.

More from Paul Tillich

Faith consists in being vitally concerned with that ultimate reality to which I give the symbolical name of God. Whoever reflects earnestly on the meaning of life is on the verge of an act of faith.
Paul TillichRead
Cruelty towards others is always also cruelty towards ourselves.
Paul TillichRead
He who risks and fails can be forgiven. He who never risks and never fails is a failure in his whole being.
Paul TillichRead
The courage to be is the courage to accept oneself, in spite of being unacceptable.
Paul TillichRead
The citizens of a city are not guilty of the crimes committed in their city; but they are guilty as participants in the destiny of [humanity] as a whole and in the destiny of their city in particular; for their acts in which freedom was united with destiny have contributed to the destiny in which they participate. They are guilty, not of committing the crimes of which their group is accused, but of contributing to the destiny in which these crimes happened.
Paul TillichRead
Wine is like the incarnation--it is both divine and human
Paul TillichRead

Similar quotes

If my eyes could show my soul,everyone would cry when they saw me smile.
Kurt CobainRead
I cannot think that we are useless or God would not have created us. There is one God looking down on us all. We are all the children of one God. The sun, the darkness, the winds are all listening to what we have to say.
GeronimoRead
International football is the continuation of war by other means.
George OrwellRead
Eager souls, mystics and revolutionaries, may propose to refashion the world in accordance with their dreams; but evil remains, and so long as it lurks in the secret places of the heart, utopia is only the shadow of a dream
Nathaniel HawthorneRead
Her own misery filled her heart—there was no room in it for other people's sorrow.
George EliotRead
...a distinction must be made between true and false ideas, and that too much rein must not be given to a man's imagination under pretext of its being a clear and distinct intellection.
Gottfried LeibnizRead

A little wisdom, now and then

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

Quote by Paul Tillich | QuoteProject