Every person born in this world represents something new, something that never existed before, something original and unique.
Interpretation
Every individual has a unique value and contributes something original to the world.
Martin Buber's quote emphasizes the inherent uniqueness and originality of every individual born into the world. It suggests that each person is not just a copy of others, but rather brings their own distinct qualities and perspectives, which adds richness and diversity to human experience. This acknowledgment of individuality can inspire us to appreciate ourselves and others more deeply, recognizing that everyone has something valuable to offer.
In practice
In a graduation speech to remind students of their unique contributions to society.
When I confront a human being as my Thou and speak the basic word I-Thou to him, then he is no thing among things nor does he consist of things. He is no longer He or She, a dot in the world grid of space and time, nor a condition to be experienced and described, a loose bundle of named qualities. Neighborless and seamless, he is Thou and fills the firmament. Not as if there were nothing but he; but everything else lives in his light.
Play is the exultation of the possible.
There is no room for God in him who is full of himself.
It is usual to think of good and evil as two poles, two opposite directions, the antithesis of one another...We must begin by doing away with this convention.
God dwells wherever man lets Him in.
Feelings dwell in man; but man dwells in his love. That is no metaphor, but the actual truth. Love does not cling to the I in such a way as to have the Thou only for its " content," its object; but love is between I and Thou. The man who does not know this, with his very being know this, does not know love; even though he ascribes to it the feelings he lives through, experiences, enjoys, and expresses.
Man is born to live, to suffer, and to die, and what befalls him is a tragic lot. There is no denying this in the final end. But we must deny it all along the way.
Thanks to impermanence, everything is possible.
Life is always frightful. We cannot help it and we are responsible all the same. One's born and at once one is guilty.
I was supposed to have a script, and had mislaid it. I was supposed to hear cues, and no longer did. I was meant to know the plot, but all I knew was what I saw: flash pictures in variable sequence, images with no 'meaning' beyond their temporary arrangement, not a movie but a cutting-room experience.
Human affairs are not serious, but they have to be taken seriously.
We fought a war on poverty, and poverty won
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