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.
No sacrifice which a lover would make for his beloved is too great for us to make for our enemy.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the deep commitment lovers have for each other and challenges us to extend that same level of devotion and sacrifice to our enemies.
In this quote, Dietrich Bonhoeffer emphasizes the profound sacrifices that lovers are often willing to make for one another, suggesting that if we can show such dedication to those we hold dear, we should also be prepared to offer similar sacrifices for our enemies. This idea serves as a call to elevate our moral and ethical standards by portraying a love that transcends personal connection, advocating for compassion and selflessness even in the face of conflict.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During a wedding speech, one might use this quote to emphasize the power of love and commitment.
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.
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.
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
...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.
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.
Similar quotes
I watched him, filled with tenderness and ache, wondering what it was that connected us. Was it the wounded places down inside people that sought each other out, that bred a kind of love between them?
I love thee with the passion put to use_x000D_ _x000D_ In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith. _x000D_ _x000D_ I love thee with a love I seemed to lose_x000D_ _x000D_ With my lost saints,-I love thee with the breath, _x000D_ _x000D_ Smiles, tears, of all my life!-and, if God choose, _x000D_ _x000D_ I shall but love thee better after death.
In love longing I listen to the monk's bell. I will never forget you even for an interval short as those between the bell notes.
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.
Healthy love, I always think, is... wanting the person you love to be more of themselves. And I think for a parent that's a challenge, because you have to let a baby spread its wings.
Love, that exempts no one beloved from loving, seized me with pleasure of this man so strongly, that, as thou seest, it doth not yet desert me.