Philosophy Quote by Hans Urs von Balthasar — Inspiring Words on Life, Love & Wisdom

“God defines himself as "I am who I am", which also means: My being is such that I shall always be present in every moment of becoming.”

“The Church does not dispense the sacrament of baptism in order to acquire for herself an increase in membership but in order to consecrate a human being to God and to communicate to that person the divine gift of birth from God.”

“What the Father gives is the capacity to be a self, freedom, and thus autonomy, but an autonomy which can be understood only as a surrender of self to the other.”

“To be a child means to owe one's existence to another, and even in our adult life we never quite reach the point where we no longer have to give thanks for being the person we are.”

“In Christ, for the first time, we see that in God himself there exists--within his inseparable unity--the distinction between the Father who gives and the Gift which is given (the Son), but only in the unity of the Holy Spirit.”

“Contrary to the ecologists, nature does not stand still and does not maintain the kind of equilibrium that guarantees the survival of any particular species - least of all the survival of her greatest and most fragile product: man.”

“The air was thick with teeming life, just as the oceans and the rivers were. A spoonful of seawater or a pinch of soil between your fingers held billions of living things. We were blind to this out of necessity, because if we saw what was really there we would never move. It was around us, between us, on the edge of us and inside us. It coated our bodies and we released waves of it when we breathed and spoke. It was in every skin cell and in the eyelashes that fluttered when we dreamed. It adapted to ever aspect of our behavior; if animals were shaded out, and microorganisms illuminated, then our ghosts would be clear in these bright peripheries.”

“Wouldn’t the joys of life lose all colour, if life was eternal?”

“Es ist nicht genug, zu wissen, man muß auch anwenden; es ist nicht genug, zu wollen, man muß auch tun.”

“إنّ الفلسفةَ - كما كنتُ دومًا أفهمُها و أعيشُها - هي الحياةُ طوعًا في الجليد و فوق الجبال الشاهقة ؛ البحثُ عن كلِّ ما هو غريبٌ و إشكاليٌّ في الوجود ، و عن كلِّ ما ظلّ إلى حدّ الآن منبوذًا مِن قِبَل الأخلاق”