One cannot in the nature of things expect a little tree that has been turned into a club to put forth leaves.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that one cannot expect something diminished or altered to revert to its original potential.
In this quote, Martin Buber illustrates the idea that once something has been fundamentally changed or damaged, it is unrealistic to expect it to reclaim its original form or capabilities. The 'little tree turned into a club' symbolizes a natural entity that has been stripped of its purpose and potential, highlighting the importance of nurturing and preserving the inherent qualities of life.
In practice
This quote can be used in a motivational speech about personal growth and potential.
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.
All the Dachaus must remain standing.
There are the saints of every day, the 'hidden' saints, a sort of 'middle class of holiness'... to which we can all belong.
Well, I know, of course, how important it is not to keep a business engagement, if one wants to retain any sense of the beauty of life.
In the world of the Middle East at the moment, the debates are shrill. But ... the wisest voice of all of them may well be the voice of this mute thing, the Cyrus cylinder.
That rifle hanging on the wall of the working-class flat or labourer's cottage is the symbol of democracy. It is our job to see that it stays there.
Before the Christian Church goes into eclipse anywhere there must first be a corrupting of her simple basic theology. She simply gets a wrong answer to the question, βWhat is God like?β and goes on from there. Though she may continue to cling to a sound nominal creed, her practical working creed has become false. The masses of her adherents come to believe that God is different from what He actually is; and that is heresy of the most insidious and deadly kind
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