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.
Dietrich BonhoefferRead
Principles are only tools in the hands of God; they will soon be thrown away when they are no longer useful.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Principles serve a purpose but can be discarded when they no longer serve a higher purpose.
This quote reflects on the nature of principles, suggesting that while they can guide us and provide structure in our lives, they are ultimately subordinate to a greater power or truth. Bonhoeffer implies that principles should be seen as practical tools for achieving good, and if they fail to serve this purpose, they become expendable.
Themes
PrinciplesToolsGodPhilosophyPurpose
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about morality and ethics, you might say, 'As Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, principles are only tools in the hands of God.'
More from Dietrich Bonhoeffer
All quotes βIn 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.
Dietrich BonhoefferRead
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 letβs see something to prove it.
Dietrich BonhoefferRead
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
Dietrich BonhoefferRead
...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.
Dietrich BonhoefferRead
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.
Dietrich BonhoefferRead
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There are sacraments of evil as well as of good about us, and we live and move to my belief in an unknown world, a place where there are caves and shadows and dwellers in twilight. It is possible that man may sometimes return on the track of evolution, and it is my belief that an awful lore is not yet dead.
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Life is all too wondrous sweet, and the world is so beautifully bewildered; it is the dream of an intoxicated divinity.
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