When people come to you for help, do not turn them off with pious words, saying, 'Have faith and take your troubles to God.' Act instead as though there were no God, as though there were only one person in the world who could help -- only yourself.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of personal responsibility in helping others.
Martin Buber suggests that when individuals seek help, it is vital to engage with them sincerely and actively rather than simply invoking faith or spirituality. He advocates for taking personal responsibility to provide support, as if we were the sole source of assistance available to them, thereby emphasizing the importance of compassionate human connection and action over abstract religious platitudes.
In practice
In a speech about community service, one could use this quote to emphasize the importance of direct action.
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.
[Cities] are not like suburbs, only denser. They differ from towns and suburbs in basic ways, and one of these is that cities are, by definition, full of strangers.
Thou and I are too wise to woo peaceably.
What is the use of living, if it be not to strive for noble causes.
If danger arises in the present moment, there may be an emotion. There may even be pain. But that's a challenge, not a problem. For a problem to exist, you need time and repetitive mind activity.
There is no separation between mind and body... Self and other co-arise and fall away all the time.
A man can be himself only so long as he is alone.
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