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A king who dies on the cross must be the king of a rather strange kingdom.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote suggests that true leadership can involve suffering and sacrifice, especially in a kingdom defined by unconventional values.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer's quote reflects the idea that a ruler who faces the ultimate sacrifice, such as dying on the cross, embodies a unique and perhaps paradoxical form of leadership. This 'strange kingdom' hints at a realm where the values and principles differ significantly from those of traditional power, emphasizing love, sacrifice, and the well-being of others over mere dominance or authority.

Themes

LeadershipSacrificeKingdomValuesService

In practice

Example use cases

This quote could be used in a speech about ethical leadership during a conference.

More from Dietrich Bonhoeffer

A home is a kingdom of it's own in the midst of the world, a stronghold amid life's storms and stresses, a refuge, even a sanctuary.
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In normal life we hardly realize how much more we receive than we give, and life cannot be rich without such gratitude. It is so easy to overestimate the importance of our own achievements compared with what we owe to the help of others.
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Sometimes we just need a firm kick in the pants. An unsmiling expectation that if we mean all these wonderful things we talk about and sing about, then let’s see something to prove it.
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It is God's earth out of which man is taken. From it he has his body. His body belongs to his essential being. Man's body is not his prison, his shell his exterior, but man himself. Man does not "have" a body; he does not "have" a soul; rather he "is" body and soul. Man in the beginning is really his body. He is one. He is his body, as Christ is completely his body, as the Church is the body of Christ
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...And then, just when everything is bearing down on us to such an extent that we can scarcely withstand it, the Christmas message comes to tell us that all our ideas are wrong, and that what we take to be evil and dark is really good and light because it comes from God. Our eyes are at fault, that is all.
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Anyone who thinks that his time is too valuable to spend keeping quiet will eventually have no time for God and his brother, but only for himself and for his own follies.
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