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
We can speak without voice to the trees and the clouds and the waves of the sea. Without words they respond through the rustling of leaves and the moving of clouds and the murmuring of the sea.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote expresses the idea that nature communicates with us silently, and we can understand it through observation.
In this quote, Paul Tillich highlights the profound connection between humans and nature, suggesting that even in silence, there is a form of communication that transcends words. The rustling of leaves, the movement of clouds, and the murmuring of the sea are all ways through which nature reveals its essence to us, inviting us to engage with it on a deeper emotional and spiritual level.
Themes
NatureCommunicationSilenceConnectionObservation
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about environmental conservation, one could include this quote to emphasize the importance of listening to nature.
More from Paul Tillich
All quotes βCruelty 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
Water is on the table for every single one us. When it's gone, game over. I don't care what company you run; I don't care if you're Republican or liberal.
Erin BrockovichRead
Nature does not suffer her veil to be taken from her, and what she does not choose to reveal to the spirit, thou wilt not wrest from her by levers and screws.
Johann Wolfgang Von GoetheRead
The trash and litter of nature disappears into the ground with the passing of each year, but man's litter has more permanence.
John SteinbeckRead
If you know wilderness in the way that you know love, you would be unwilling to let it go.... This is the story of our past and it will be the story of our future.
Terry Tempest WilliamsRead
It is in man's heart that the life of nature's spectacle exists; to see it, one must feel it.
Jean-Jacques RousseauRead
Whoever wants me to talk, I'll come over and tell them about the necessity of preserving the Everglades.
Marjory Stoneman DouglasRead