The awareness of the ambiguity of one's highest achievements, as well as one's deepest failures is a definite symptom of maturity.

Man's ultimate concern must be expressed symbolically, because symbolic language alone is able to express the ultimate.

Every institution is inherently demonic.

I loved thee beautiful and kind, And plighted an eternal vow; So altered are thy face and mind, t'were perjury to love thee now!

The courage to be is rooted in the God who appears when God has disappeared in the anxiety of doubt.

The courage to be is the courage to accept oneself, in spite of being unacceptable.

Why does philosophy use concepts and why does faith use symbols if both try to express the same ultimate? The answer, of course, is that the relation to the ultimate is not the same in each case. The philosophical relation is in principle a detached description of the basic structure in which the ultimate manifests itself. The relation of faith is in principle an involved expression of concern about the meaning of the ultimate for the faithful.