To look away from the world, or to stare at it, does not help a man to reach God; but he who sees the world in Him stands in His presence.

If you want to raise a man from mud and filth, do not think it is enough to stay on top and reach a helping hand down to him. You must go all the way down yourself, down into mud and filth. Then take hold of him with strong hands and pull him and yourself out into the light.

The I of the basic word I-Thou is different from that of the basic word I-It.

One need ask only 'What for? What am I to unify my being for?' The reply is: Not for my own sake.

Freedom and destiny are solemnly promised to one another and linked together in meaning.

Every person born in this world represents something new, something that never existed before, something original and unique.

But it can also happen, if will and grace are joined, that as I contemplate the tree I am drawn into a relation, and the tree ceases to be an It. . . . Does the tree then have consciousness, similar to our own? I have no experience of that. But thinking that you have brought this off in your own case, must you again divide the indivisible? What I encounter is neither the soul of a tree nor a dryad, but the tree itself.