Love is responsibility of an I for a You: in this consists what cannot consist in any feeling - the equality of all lovers.
Interpretation
Love transcends mere feelings; it is an active commitment to care for another person as an equal.
Martin Buber's quote emphasizes that love involves a profound responsibility between individuals, where one person (the 'I') actively engages and commits to the well-being of another (the 'You'). This perspective highlights that true love is not just a feeling but a conscious choice to uphold equality and mutual care between lovers, suggesting that love is rooted in shared responsibility rather than emotional dependency.
In practice
In a wedding ceremony, one might quote this to emphasize the responsibility that partners take for one another.
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.
Every person born in this world represents something new, something that never existed before, something original and unique.
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.
Of all the worldly passions, lust is the most intense. All other worldly passions seem to follow in its train.
Love changes everything. Days are longer, words mean more. Love changes everything. Pain is deeper than before. Love can turn your world around, and that world will last forever.
I kiss you and kiss you, With arms around my own, Ah, how shall I miss you, When, dear, you have grown.
In the early days of love sometimes, you will report an ecstatic feeling you have met someone who seems to understand you without you needing to speak.
The first and highest law must be the love of man to man. Homo homini Deus est - this is the supreme practical maxim, this is the turning point of the world's History.
Love is the attempt to form a friendship inspired by beauty.
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