Martin Buber (1878–1965) was an Austrian-born Israeli Jewish theologian, philosopher, and novelist. One of the most creative and prominent religious thinkers of the 20th century, his approach to the man-God relationship had a significant influence on both Jewish and Christian theology in the twentieth century.
Born in Vienna, Buber studied philosophy at Vienna, Berlin, and Zurich, and then became interested in Hasidism. He was founding editor of the monthly journal Der Jude (1916–24; ‘The Jew,’) professor of comparative religion at Frankfurt 1923–33, then director of the Central Office for Jewish Adult Education until 1938 when he fled to Palestine to escape the Nazis and became professor of the sociology of religion at Jerusalem.
Buber published abundantly on social and ethical problems. He is best known for his religious philosophy, which he expanded most notably Ich und Du (1922; I and Thou, 1958,) contrasting personal relationships of mutuality and reciprocity with utilitarian or objective relationships.
Buber’s philosophy and his reworkings of Hasidic tales, collected in Die Legende des Baalschem (1908; The Legend of the Baal-Shem, 1956,) Die Geschichten des Rabbi Nachman (1906; Tales of Rabbi Nachman, 1956,) and Königtum Gottes (1932; Royalty of God, 1967,) have had a refined influence on European and U.S. literature. His only novel is Gog und Magog (1943; For the Sake of Heaven,) about the Hasidic world in Napoleonic times.
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I do not accept any absolute formulas for living. No preconceived code can see ahead to everything that can happen in a man’s life. As we live, we grow and our beliefs change. They must change. So I think we should live with this constant discovery. We should be open to this adventure in heightened awareness of living. We should stake our whole existence on our willingness to explore and experience.
—Martin Buber
Topics: Experience
There are three principles in a man’s being and life, the principle of thought, the principle of speech, and the principle of action. The origin of all conflict between me and my fellow-men is that I do not say what I mean and I don’t do what I say.
—Martin Buber
He who loves brings God and the World together.
—Martin Buber
Solitude is the place of purification.
—Martin Buber
Topics: Solitude
All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.
—Martin Buber
Topics: Travel
The real struggle is not between East and West, or capitalism and communism, but between education and propaganda.
—Martin Buber
Topics: Propaganda
We cannot avoid using power, cannot escape the compulsion to afflict the world, so let us, cautious in diction and mighty in contradiction, love powerfully.
—Martin Buber
Topics: Love, Power
The atheist staring from his attic window is often nearer to God than the believer caught up in his own false image of God.
—Martin Buber
Play is the exultation of the possible.
—Martin Buber
Topics: Pleasure, Leisure
Power abdicates only under stress of counter-power.
—Martin Buber
Topics: Stress
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