Great Throughts Treasury

"The particular It, by entering the relational event, may become a Thou."

"The particular Thou, after the relational event has run its course, is bound to become an It."

"The philosophical anthropologist ? can know the wholeness of the person and through it the wholeness of man only when he does not leave his subjectivity out and does not remain an untouched observer."

"The prophet is appointed to oppose the king, and even more: history."

"The primary word I-Thou can be spoken only with the whole being. Concentration and fusion into the whole being can never take place through my agency, not can it ever take place without me. I become through my relation to the Thou; and as I become the I, I say Thou. All real living is meeting."

"The teacher experiences the pupil's being educated, but the pupil cannot experience the educating of the educator. The educator stands at both ends of the common situation, the pupil at only one end. In the moment when the pupil is able to throw himself across and experience from over there, the educative relationship would burst asunder, or change into friendship."

"The primary word I-It can never be spoken with the whole being."

"The primary words are not isolated words, but combined words."

"The primary word I-Thou establishes the world of relation."

"The third (sphere in which the world of relation arises): Life with spiritual beings. Here the relations is wrapped in a cloud but reveals itself, it lacks but creates language. We hear no You and yet addressed; we answer - creating, thinking, acting: with our being we speak the basic word, unable to say You with our mouth. But how can we incorporate into the world of the basic word that lies outside language?"

"The Thou encounters me by grace ? it cannot be found by seeking. But that I speak the basic word to it is a deed of my whole being, is my essential deed."

"The work produced is a thing among things, able to be experienced and described as a sum of qualities. But from time to time it can face the receptive beholder in its whole embodied form."

"The world as experience belongs to the basic word I-It."

"The world is twofold for man in accordance with his twofold attitude."

"The world of It is set in the context of space and time."

"The world is not divine sport, it is divine destiny. There is a divine meaning of the world, of man, of human persons, of you and me."

"The world of Thou is not set in the context of either of these."

"The You-world does not hang together in space and time."

"There is a divine meaning of the world, of man, of human persons, of you and me."

"There is no I as such but only the I of the basic word I-You and the I of the basic word I-It."

"The world wants to be deceived."

"These are the two basic privileges of the It-world. They induce man to consider the It-world as the world in which one has to live and also can live comfortably ? and that even offers us all sorts of stimulations and excitements, activities and knowledge. In this firm and wholesome chronicle the You-moments appear as queer lyric-dramatic episodes. Their spell may be seductive, but they pull us dangerously to extremes, loosening the well-tried structure, leaving behind more doubt than satisfaction, shaking up our security ? altogether uncanny, altogether indispensable. Since one must after all return into ?the world,? why not stay in it in the first place? Why not call to order that which confronts us and send it home into objectivity? And when one cannot get around saying You, perhaps to one?s father, wife, companion ? why not say You and mean It? After all, producing the sound ?You? with one?s vocal cords does not by any means entail speaking the uncanny basic word. Even whispering an amorous You with one?s soul is hardly dangerous as long as in all seriousness one means nothing but experiencing and using."

"There is no I taken in itself, but only the I of the primary word I-Thou and the I of the primary word I-It."

"This and the like together establish the realm of It."

"This is the risk: the primary word can only be spoken with the whole being. He who gives himself to it may withhold nothing of himself."

"This human being is not He or She, bounded from every other He and She, a specific point in space and time within the net of the world; nor is he a nature able to be experienced and described, a loose bundle of named qualities. But with no neighbor, and whole in himself, he is Thou and fills the heavens. This does not mean that nothing exists except himself. But all else lives in his light."

"This is the sacrifice: the endless possibility that is offered up on the altar of the form."

"This, however, is the sublime melancholy of our lot that every You must become an It in our world. However exclusively present it may have been in the direct relationship ? as soon as the relationship has run its course or is permeated by means, the You becomes an object among objects, possibly the noblest one and yet one of them, assigned its measure and boundary. The actualization of the work involves a loss of actuality. Genuine contemplation never lasts long; the natural being that has only now revealed itself in the mystery of reciprocity has again become describable, analyzable, classifiable ? the point at which manifold systems of laws intersect. And even love cannot persist in direct relations; it endures, but only in the alternation of actuality and latency. The human being who but now was unique and devoid of qualities, not at hand but only present, not experienceable, only touchable, has again become a He or She, an aggregate of qualities, a quantum with a shape. Now I can again abstract from him the color of his hair, of his speech, of his graciousness; but as long as I can do that he is my You no longer and not yet again."

"This is the eternal origin of art that a human being confronts a form that wants to become a work through him. Not a figment of his soul but something that appears to the soul and demands the soul's creative power. What is required is a deed that a man does with his whole being."

"To man the world is twofold, in accordance with his twofold attitude."

"Thus the I of man is also twofold."

"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."

"To produce is to draw forth, to invent is to find, to shape is to discover."

"To strive for unity, by fashioning the soul into a unit, thus enabling it to conceive unity; to strive for action, by filling the soul with absoluteness, thus enabling it to substantiate the deed; to strive for the future, by freeing the soul from the cogwheel of [human] motives and turning it toward the goal, thus enabling it to serve the future."

"Trust, trust in the world, because this human being exists - that is the most inward achievement of the relation in education. Because this human being exists, meaninglessness, however hard pressed you are by it, cannot be the real truth. Because this human being exists, in the darkness the light lies hidden, in fear salvation, and in the callousness of one's fellow-men the great Love."

"We can be redeemed only to the extent to which we see ourselves."

"What has to be given up is not the I, as most mystics suppose: this I is indispensable for any relationship, including the highest, which always presupposes an I and You."

"What, then, does one experience of the You? Nothing at all. For one does not experience it. What, then, does one know of the You? Only everything. For one no longer knows particulars."

"We are told that man experiences his world. What does this mean?"

"We can learn to be whole by saying what we mean and doing what we say."

"When a primary word is spoken the speaker enters the word and takes his stand in it."

"When one says It, the I of the word pair I-It is said, too."

"What has to be given up is not the I, but that drive for self-affirmation which impels man to flee from the unreliable, unsolid, unlasting, unpredictable, dangerous world of relation into the having of things."

"When a man says I he refers to one or other of these. The I to which he refers is present when he says I. Further, when he says Thou or It, the I of one of the two primary words is present."

"When Thou is spoken, the speaker has no thing for his object. For where there is a thing there is another thing. Every It is bounded by others; It exists only through being bounded by others. But when Thou is spoken, there is no thing. Thou has no bounds."

"When one says You, the I of the word pair I-You is said, too."

"When Thou is spoken, the speaker has no thing; he has indeed nothing. But he takes his stand in relation."

"Whoever says You does not have something for his object. For wherever there is something there is also another something; every It borders on other Its; It is only by virtue of bordering on others. But where You is said there is no something. You has no borders."

"Whoever abhors the name and fancies that he is godless ? when he addresses with his whole devoted being the Thou of his life that cannot be restricted by any other, he addresses God."

"Whoever says You does not have something; he has nothing. But he stands in relation."